Sophie Cole (1862 - February 11, 1947)

Sophie Cole (1862 – February 11, 1947) was one of the most important author of Mills & Boon and sister of Professor F.J. Cole (1872-1959), F.R.S., Professor of Zoology in the University of Reading from 1907 to 1939. He was a book collector and bibliophile from his schooldays until his death. His major historical work A history of comparative anatomy (1944) was based substantially on his own collection.

As an adolescent, Miss Cole suffered from a long illness, and to pass the time she wrote a romance novel, Arrows from the dark in 1909, the first book to be published by Mills and Boon, who later became major publishers of romance novels. The book was well-received, and by 1914, 1,394 women had bought a copy. During her lifetime she wrote 65 books, and earned her living from them for many years. Miss Cole knew London very well, and wrote a non-fiction book on literary London. She lived in Brighton, but in her later years came to live with Professor Cole and his wife at Eldon Road in Reading.

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First Book - Rachel Chalfont (1908)

Last Book - Queer Neighbours (1946)

Source: http://www.reading.ac.uk/special-collections/collections/sc-cole.aspx

Passion's Fortune: The Story of Mills & Boon by Joseph McAleer

E.M. Hull (August 16, 1880 - February 11, 1947)

Edith Maude Hull (also known as E. M. Hull and Edith M. Hull) (August 16, 1880, London - February 11, 1947, Hazlewood, Derbyshire) was a British novelist best known for being the author of the romantic novel The Sheik which became an international best seller in 1921.

E. M. Hull was the pseudonym of Edith Maude Winstanley née Henderson. The Sheik novel is credited with starting the hugely popular "desert-romance" genre. Hull followed The Sheik with subsequent novels The Shadow of the East, The Desert Healer, and The Sons of the Sheik.

Born Edith Maude Henderson in the Borough of Hampstead, London, on August 16, 1880, Hull dabbled writing fiction in the late 1910s while her husband was away serving in World War I. The Sheik, her first effort, was first published in England in 1919 and quickly became an international blockbuster, placing among Publishers Weekly's top ten best sellers for both of the years 1921 and 1922. Hull's volume quickly sold over 1.2 million copies worldwide.

Sales further increased when Paramount released a film version of The Sheik in 1921, which launched Rudolph Valentino into cinema immortality as the greatest "lover" of the silent screen.

Hull continue to write into the 1930's and 1925 novel The Sons of the Sheik was also a tremendous success, as was the film version Son of the Sheik, which again starred Valentino.

Ms. Hull died at age 66 on February 11, 1947, forgotten perhaps by the world that decades later still vividly recalls her landmark fictional hero. She died in Hazelwood, in the parish of Duffield, Derbyshire.

First Book - The Sheik (1919)

Last Book - The Forrest of Terrible Things (1939)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Maude_Hull

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