Helen R. (Helen Rose) Hull

Helen Rose Hull was born in Albion, Michigan, on March 28, 1888. Encouraged by her grandfather, who published some of her early stories in his newspaper, she went on to study at Michigan State University and began her working life as an elementary school teacher.

Hull began publishing in 1914, with an early one-act play appearing in The Woman’s Journal. She later taught at Wellesley College and Barnard College before joining Columbia University, where she taught creative writing for forty years alongside her lifelong partner, Mabel Louise Robinson.

Over a writing career of more than five decades, Hull published seventeen novels and sixty-five short stories. Her notable works include Quest, Islanders, The Asking Price, Through the House Door, and the mysteries A Tapping on the Wall and Close Her Pale Blue Eyes. She also wrote biographies and books about writing. Hull died on July 15, 1971, at the age of 83.