Who was Ethel M. Dell? It’s hard to say more than two things about her: she was incredibly private and incredibly popular. Despite being read worldwide by millions, very little is known about her. All she left behind is her work, and the grumblings about her by authors of her era who didn’t sell as well as she.

I first saw her name when reading a charmingly snarky essay by George Orwell about his time working in a bookshop. The shop had a lending library and it was there he said you could see what actual readers enjoyed. He said the Dickens and Thackeray and other “classics” would sit gathering dust, while the books he turned his nose up at were devoured steadily. I won’t quote what he said, because it’s just so darn mean and snobby, but I took his put-downs as recommendations. So I went looking for Ethel M. Dell stories.

She wrote thirty books and even more short stories. She knew what the snobs and critics thought and didn’t care. She knew she was a good storyteller and she was right! Do her stories challenge the reader? No, why should they! She was a master of longing, passion and the happy ending. In a career that spanned 1911-1939 she offered an escape from a terrifyingly dangerous, sad, and harsh world. And I can say the escape hatch she made still works. It’s a tradition that is carried on by thousands of writers across the world, but her original model is as effective as ever.

Her stories have a sensual and seductive comfort that remains incredibly appealing. In Cornelia Otis Skinner’s popular 1942 novel, “Our Hearts Were Young and Gay,” the narrator says she has “a secret letch for Ethel M. Dell.” And I can see why. Her stories go down smooth and leave you feeling warm all over. Of course, the snobs had a lot more power back then. People of a certain station would have to read their Ethel M. Dell books in secret, wrapping them in more respectable book jackets. Times have changed. But the joyful escape these books offer hasn’t.

So it is my great pride to bring Ethel M. Dell into Super Large Print.