# May Edginton

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{{Short description|English novelist and playwright (1883–1957)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
|name = <!-- use common name/article title -->
|image = <!-- filename only, no "File:" or "Image:" prefix, and no enclosing [brackets](/source/brackets) -->
|alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
|caption = 
|birth_name = Helen Marion Edginton
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1883|12|20|df=y}}
|birth_place = England, UK
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1957|06|17|1883|12|20|df=y}}
|death_place = Rondebosch, South Africa
|spouse = [Francis Evans Baily](/source/Francis_Evans_Baily) (1912-1930)
|children = 1
|other_names = H.M. Edginton,<br />May Edginton
|occupation = Writer
|years_active = 1907–1955
|known_for = 
|notable_works = 
}}
'''May Edginton''' (originally Helen Marion Edginton, 20 December 1883 – 17 June 1957)<ref name="IMDb" >[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0249317/bio IMDb]</ref> was an English writer who had over 50 popular novels published in London. She also wrote plays, collaborating with [Rudolf Besier](/source/Rudolf_Besier) on two of them.<ref name="Feminist">Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy: ''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present Day'' (London: Batsford, 1990), p. 329.</ref> Some of her fiction works were filmed. Her work was translated into several languages, including Hungarian and Chinese.<ref>Site in Hungarian: [https://moly.hu/konyvek/may-edginton-a-beteljesult-alom Retrieved 4 May 2018.]</ref><ref>OCLC Worldcat Identities [http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n87911804/ Retrieved 4 May 2018.]</ref>

==Biography==
Edginton was born on 20 December 1883 in England. She wrote for ''[The Royal Magazine](/source/The_Royal_Magazine)'', where she met the editorial staff and also novelist Francis Evans Baily (1887-1962), whom she married in 1912.<ref name="Oxref">Oxford Reference [http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095742290 Retrieved 4 May 2018.]</ref> They had one son,<ref name="Feminist"/> and separated in 1930.<ref name="Oxref"/>

She died at 73 in [Rondebosch](/source/Rondebosch), South Africa, on 17 June 1957.<ref name="IMDb"/>

==Fiction, plays and films==
Edginton started to write novels in 1908. Many explore domestic predicaments. ''The Sin of Eve'' (1913) features a working woman, who leaves the suffragette cause to get married. Others of the novels examine escapes or solutions for heroines in domestic predicaments. ''Married Life, or The True Romance'' (1917), for example, shows the disintegrating relations between newly-weds living on a small income. The wife depends wholly on the husband for money and is tied to the home by the arrival of their three children, so losing all power and independence. However, she manages to reverse the situation while her husband is away on a business trip. ''Woman of the Family'' (1936) has the "household drudge" Eve advance from a secretarial job to being a dance-club hostess, yet in marriage still having "no right to her own money". She escapes with one of the club's wealthy clients.

Some of Edginton's fiction has been filmed – the story "World Without End" as ''[His Supreme Moment](/source/His_Supreme_Moment)'' (1925), starring [Blanche Sweet](/source/Blanche_Sweet), the novel ''Purple and Fine Linen'' as ''[Three Hours](/source/Three_Hours)'' (1927) starring [Corinne Griffith](/source/Corinne_Griffith) and later as ''[Adventure in Manhattan](/source/Adventure_in_Manhattan)'' (1936) starring [Jean Arthur](/source/Jean_Arthur),<ref name="Feminist"/> and ''The Joy Girl'', adapted as such (1927), starring [Olive Borden](/source/Olive_Borden).<ref name="IMDb"/>

Her two plays, co-written with Rudolf Besier, were ''[Secrets](/source/Secrets_(1922_play))'' (1922) and ''The Prude's Fall'' (1920). Both were later filmed, the first of them twice: ''[Secrets](/source/Secrets_(1924_film))'' (1924) with [Norma Talmadge](/source/Norma_Talmadge) and ''[Secrets](/source/Secrets_(1933_film))'' (1933) with [Mary Pickford](/source/Mary_Pickford). ''The Prude's Fall'' appeared as ''[Dangerous Virtue](/source/The_Prude's_Fall)'' (1924), directed by [Graham Cutts](/source/Graham_Cutts), art direction by [Alfred Hitchcock](/source/Alfred_Hitchcock), starring [Jane Novak](/source/Jane_Novak) and [Julanne Johnston](/source/Julanne_Johnston).<ref name="IMDb"/><ref name="Feminist"/>

Edginton's final novel was ''Two Lost Sheep'' (1955).<ref name="Feminist"/>

==Filmography==
{{div col}}
* ''The Double Cross'' (1912)
* ''The Love Auction'' (1919)
* ''[Lying Lips](/source/Lying_Lips_(1921_film))'' (1921)
* ''[Creation](/source/Creation_(1922_film))'' (1922)
* ''[Secrets](/source/Secrets_(1924_film))'' (1924)
* ''[Triumph](/source/Triumph_(1924_film))'' (1924)
* ''[Her Husband's Secret](/source/Her_Husband's_Secret)'' (1924)
* ''[His Supreme Moment](/source/His_Supreme_Moment)'' (1925)
* ''[The Prude's Fall](/source/The_Prude's_Fall)'' (1925)
* ''[Three Hours](/source/Three_Hours)'' (1927)
* ''The Woman Who Squandered Men'' (1927)
* ''[The Joy Girl](/source/The_Joy_Girl)'' (1927)
* ''[The False Madonna](/source/The_False_Madonna)'' (1931)
* ''[Secrets](/source/Secrets_(1933_film))'' (1933)
* ''[Adventure in Manhattan](/source/Adventure_in_Manhattan)'' (1936)
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}
*Orlando Project, Cambridge University Press

==External links==
*{{Gutenberg author |id=6239| name=May Edginton}}
*{{Internet Archive author |sname=May Edginton |birth=1883 |death=1957}}
*{{Librivox author |id=3375}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edginton, May}}
Category:1883 births
Category:1957 deaths
Category:20th-century English novelists
Category:English romantic fiction writers
Category:English women dramatists and playwrights
Category:20th-century English dramatists and playwrights
Category:20th-century English women novelists
Category:English women romantic fiction writers

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [May Edginton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Edginton) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Edginton?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.