Elinor Glyn
Novelist and Screenwriter · 1864–1943
Who is Elinor Glyn?
Elinor Glyn, born Elinor Sutherland in Saint Helier, Jersey, on 17 October 1864, was a British novelist and scriptwriter who became one of the most commercially successful romantic writers of her era. Her father, civil engineer Douglas Sutherland, died when she was only three months old, and after her mother's remarriage the family returned to live in Jersey when Elinor was about eight years old. Glyn built her career on sensational romantic fiction, most notably the 1907 novel Three Weeks, and later the 1927 novel It, which popularised the phrase "It girl" for a woman possessing an indefinable magnetic charm. In 1920 she moved into screenwriting in Hollywood, where several of her novels were adapted into films; she is widely credited with helping shape the early stardom of actors including Clara Bow — for whom she coined the "It girl" label — as well as influencing the public images of Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson. Her outsized influence on early twentieth-century popular romance and celebrity culture led later historians to describe her as instrumental in inventing the modern romance genre and early Hollywood glamour.
Sources: Elinor Glyn — Wikipedia biographical entry · Elinor Glyn — Encyclopaedia Britannica · Hilary A. Hallett, Inventing the It Girl: How Elinor Glyn Created the Modern Romance and Conquered Early Hollywood (2022)