In 1922, Ethel married a soldier, Lieutenant-Colonel Gerald Tahourdin Savage, who resigned his commission at his marriage, making Dell the sole support of the family.
Dell continued writing, eventually producing about thirty novels and several volumes of short stories over the course of her life.
The protagonist of George Orwell's novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying makes several negative comments about Dell and other authors (notably Warwick Deeping), specifically mentioning The Way of an Eagle.
In the world of amusement it is essential for someone to cater for the illiterate ...” The titular character of Winifred Watson's novel Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day refers to Dell as the source of her inspiration to encourage a young gentleman to punch a rival by hissing, "Sock him one" at the key moment.
In Cornelia Otis Skinner's popular Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (1942), the narrator says her travel-mate was well read but that she herself "had a secret letch for Ethel M.
In Dorothy Sayers's novel The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, first published in 1928, Ethel M. Dell is mentioned as an example of escapist literature.
[1] This defacement is, at first glance, designed to affront "Romance" writing but the complexity of this collage and that of many other library books carried out between 1960 and April, 1962 has yet to be completely unravelled.