The Sheik

E. M. Hull (1880-1947) was an English romance novelist. Born in London, Hull was the daughter of a Canadian mother and a father from New York City. As a girl, Hull visited Algeria with her family, providing the setting for many of her successful novels, including The Sheikh (1919), an international bestseller. Notoriously reclusive, Hull settled in Derbyshire with her husband, a civil engineer and pig farmer, with whom she had a daughter, Cecil Winstanley Hull. The Sheikh served as source material for a popular 1921 silent film of the same name by Paramount, leading to the sale of millions of copies of Hull's novel.