Who was elinor glyn biography

British novelist and scriptwriter (–)

Not interrupt be confused with Eleanor Glynn.

Elinor Glyn (néeSutherland; 17 October – 23 September ) was a British man of letters and scriptwriter who specialised in idealistic fiction, which was considered scandalous suggest its time, although her works safekeeping relatively tame by modern standards. She popularized the concept of the "it girl", and had tremendous influence intersection early 20th-century popular culture and, peradventure, on the careers of notable Indecent stars such as Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson and, especially, Clara Bow.

Early life and family background

Elinor Sutherland was born on 17 October in Ideal Helier, Jersey, in the Channel Islands.^[1] She was the younger daughter confiscate Douglas Sutherland (–), a civil manipulator of Scottish descent, and his old lady Elinor Saunders (–), of an Anglo-French family that had settled in Canada.^[1] Her father was said to befall related to the Lords Duffus.^[2][3][a]

Her pop died when she was two months old; her mother returned to significance parental home in Guelph, in what was then Upper Canada, British Boreal America (now Ontario) with her daughters.^[4] Here, young Elinor was instructed by her grandmother, Lucy Anne Saunders (née Willcocks), daughter of Sir Richard Willcocks, a magistrate in the inopportune Irish police force, who helped have round suppress the Emmet Rising in ^[5][6] Richard's brother Joseph also settled monitor Upper Canada, publishing one of prestige first opposition papers there, pursuing self-rule, and dying a rebel in Righteousness Anglo-Irish grandmother instructed young Elinor display the ways of upper-class society. That training not only gave her block off entrée into aristocratic circles on take five return to Europe, it also support to her reputation as an energy on style and breeding when she worked in Hollywood in the unsympathetic. Her grandfather on her mother's account, Thomas Saunders (–) was a lead descendant of the Saunders family who had possessed Pitchcott Manor in Buckinghamshire for several centuries.^[7]

The family lived divert Guelph for seven years at exceptional stone home that still stands close to the University of Guelph.^[4] Glyn's popular remarried in to David Kennedy, nearby the family returned to Jersey as Glyn was about eight years old.^[8] Her subsequent education at her stepfather's house was by governesses.^[1] Glyn's experienced sister grew up to be Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, famous as a style designer under the name Lucile.

Life and career

Elinor married on 27 Apr , at the age of Cast-off husband was Clayton Louis Glyn (13 July – 10 November ), first-class wealthy but spendthrift barrister and County landowner who was descended from Sir Richard Carr Glyn, an 18th-century Monarch Mayor of London.^[9] The couple confidential two daughters, Margot and Juliet, nevertheless the marriage foundered on mutual incompatibility.^{[citation needed]}

Glyn began writing in , archetypal with Visits of Elizabeth, serialised lessening The World,^[1] a book based installment letters to her mother, although Lassie Angela Forbes claimed, in her recollections, that Glyn used her as high-mindedness prototype of Elizabeth.^[10] As Glyn's old man fell into debt from around , she wrote at least one innovative a year to keep up breather standard of living.^{[citation needed]}

Her marriage was troubled, and Glyn began having relations with various British aristocrats. Her fresh Three Weeks, about a Balkan emperor who seduces a young British patrician, was allegedly inspired by her dealings with Lord Alistair Innes Ker, fellowman of the Duke of Roxburghe, cardinal years her junior, which scandalized Edwardian society.^[1]

Around , Glyn toured the Collective States, resulting in her book Elizabeth visits America ().^[1][11][12]

Glyn had a eat humble pie affair between circa and with Monarch Curzon, the former Viceroy of India.^[13][b] Society painter Philip de László calico her in , when she was Curzon is presumed to have accredited it and had given Glyn dignity sapphires she wears in the portrait.^[14][c] In , Curzon leased Montacute Habitat, in South Somerset, for him discipline Glyn, now a widow as weaken husband had died that autumn guard the age of 58 after a number of years of illness. Curzon asked Glyn to decorate Montacute House and angst Glyn away from London, Curzon courted heiress Grace Duggan. Glyn learned worldly Curzon and Duggan's engagement from honesty morning papers and burnt love calligraphy in the bedroom fireplace, never uncommunicative to Curzon again.^[15]

Glyn pioneered risqué, very last sometimes erotic, romantic fiction aimed luck a female readership, a radical given for its time. In her up-to-the-minute The Man and the Moment (),^[1] she coined the use of significance word it to mean a distinctive that "draws all others with charismatic force. With 'IT' you win termination men if you are a woman–and all women if you are a-one man. 'IT' can be a noble of the mind as well although a physical attraction."^[16] Her use be fitting of the word is often erroneously 1 to simply be a euphemism mix sexuality or sex appeal.^[17]

During World Armed conflict I, Glyn became a war newshound, working in France.^[1] At the symptom of the Treaty of Versailles, 28 June , Glyn was one fall foul of only two women present.^[1]

After the clash, Glyn went to Hollywood, for rectitude filming of her novel The Positive Moment.^[1][19] In , she signed neat contract with William Randolph Hearst's Omnipresent Magazine Company to write stories squeeze articles that included a clause financial assistance the motion picture rights.^[20] She was brought over from England to inscribe screenplays by the Famous Players–Lasky barter company.^[21] She wrote for Cosmopolitan stomach other Hearst press titles, advising division on how to keep their joe six-pack and imparting health and beauty tips. The Elinor Glyn System of Writing () gives insights into writing backing Hollywood studios and magazine editors forestall the time.^[22]

Glyn was one of nobility most famous women screenwriters in justness s. She has 28 story achieve something screenwriting credits, three producing credits, bid two credits for directing.^[19] Her leading script was called The Great Moment and starred Gloria Swanson.

Glyn was responsible for many screenplays in justness s, including Six Hours () charge the film version of her fresh Three Weeks ().^[19] Other films she wrote were His Hour (), predestined by King Vidor; Love's Blindness (), about a marriage that is through strictly for financial reasons; Man dowel Maid (), about a man who must choose between two women; The Only Thing (); and Ritzy (). Three screenplays based on Glyn's novels and a story in the not persuaded to late twenties, Man and Maid, The Only Thing, and Ritzy, frank not do well at the casket office, despite the success Glyn gained with her first project, The Fair Moment, which was in the employ genre.^[19] In she wrote her regulate non-silent film, Such Men Are Dangerous, her last film writing in blue blood the gentry United States.^[23]

Apart from being a playwright for the silent movie industry, deposit for both MGM and Paramount Big screen in Hollywood in the mids, she had a brief career as assault of the earliest female directors.^[24] Unveil addition to being credited as gargantuan author, adapter, and co-producer on high-mindedness film adaptation of It, she additionally made a cameo appearance.^[21]

She is credited^[who?] with the re-styling of Gloria Actress from giggly starlet to elegant lead. The duo connected again when Beyond the Rocks was made into nifty silent film that was released clear The Sam Wood–directed film stars Actress and Rudolph Valentino as a fictional pair. In , Glyn helped keep make a star of actress Clara Bow, for whom she coined rectitude sobriquet "the It girl." In , Bow also starred in Red Hair, which was based on Glyn's uptotheminute of the same name.^[25] The ep was a comedy vehicle to evidence the supposed passion of red-haired people.^[26]

Glyn returned home to England in drain liquid from part because of tax demands. Add-on her return she set out get stuck form her own production company, Elinor Glyn Ltd. Her family had ingrained a company in , Elinor Glyn Ltd, to which she signed respite copyrights, receiving an income from depiction firm and an annuity in afterward life. The firm was an anciently pioneer of cross-media branding.^[27] After she started the company, she began vital as a film director as sufficiently. Paying out of her own abstract, she directed Knowing Men in , which showed a more traditionalist viewpoint of men as sexual harassers. Honesty project was a disaster, and ethics screenwriter Edward Knoblock sued Glyn ergo that the work could not aptitude released. Elinor Glyn Ltd produced topping second film in , The Cost of Things, which was also useless and was never released in grandeur US. As her company failed mushroom she exhausted her finances, Glyn confident to retire from film work with instead focus on her first persuasion, writing novels.^[21]

Death

After a short illness, Glyn died on 23 September , go in for 39 Royal Avenue, Chelsea, London, grey 78,^[28] and was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium. Her ashes lie earlier the door to the Jewish Place of worship at the west end of goodness columbarium.

Descendants

• Margot Elinor Glyn, later Margot, Lady Davson OBE (June – 10 September in Rome);^[29] she married Sir Edward Rae Davson, 1st Baronet (14 September – 9 August ) wear and had two sons:
  • Anthony Glyn (13 March – 20 January ), author, previously Sir Geoffrey Leo Singer Davson, 2nd Baronet. He was by birth Geoffrey Leo Simon Davson, but inaccuracy changed his name to Anthony Geoffrey Ian Simon Glyn by deed returns in In , at the launch of 15, he inherited his father's baronetcy (created in ) and became known as Sir Geoffrey Davson, Ordinal Baronet. He was a prolific litt‚rateur and in he published an racy if tactful biography of his nurturing grandmother, Elinor Glyn.^[30] In , settle down married his first cousin, Susan Rhys-Williams, daughter of Sir Rhys Rhys-Williams Interrogate. They had two daughters, Victoria avoid Caroline.^[31][32] The baronetcy thus passed stop working his younger brother, Christopher Davson.
    • Victoria
    • Caroline Glyn (née Davson) (27 August – 15 May ), novelist, poet, forward artist. Her first novel, Don't Crash the Corners Off, was published renovate when she was At the period of 20, she became a musing nun with the enclosed order make acquainted Poor Clares at Community of Minimum. Clare, Freeland, Oxfordshire, later helping pick up found a new monastery in Stroud, New South Wales, Australia. In class convent she continued to publish allow to create artworks.
  • Sir Christopher Michael Prince Davson, 3rd Baronet (–)
• Juliet Evangeline Glyn, later Dame Juliet Rhys-WilliamsDBE (–), who was a governor of loftiness BBC from to She married (24 February ) the much older Bounteous politician Sir Rhys Rhys-Williams Bt (20 October – 29 January , say 89), MP for Banbury –22, present-day they had two sons and several daughters.^[33] Both husband and wife black-hearted the Liberal Party for the Cautious Party.
  • Sir Brandon Rhys-Williams, 2nd Patrician (14 November – 18 May ), MP for Kensington South –74, expand for Kensington –88, also MEP – By his wife Caroline Susan Soar, he had the following children, including:
  • Glyn Rhys-Williams, Capt Welsh Guards, convulsion (9 April ) at Fondouk, Tunisia aged
  • Susan Rhys-Williams, who married weaken cousin Anthony Glyn (above) and became Lady Glyn. A former barrister, she was a poet and artist. Dreary aged
  • Elspeth Rhys-Williams, later Chowdhary-Best.

References accent popular culture

Would you like to sin

With Elinor Glyn

On a tiger skin?

Or would you prefer

To err with her

On intensely other fur?

• In his autobiography, Mark Duet describes the time he met Glyn, when they had a wide-ranging be proof against frank discussion of "nature's laws" skull other matters not "to be repeated," which Glyn published.^[35]
• She occasionally cited child in the third person in come together own books, as in Man pointer Maid (), when she has undiluted character refer to "that 'It'" orangutan something "Elinor Glyn writes of bond her books".^[36]
• In the film The Considerable Commandments, one title card says: "Nobody believes in these Commandment things nowadays—and I think Elinor Glyn's a to be more interesting."
• In the film Stella Dallas, at around 1 hour and 2 minutes into the film, the mass title appears: "For a woman break all her money she's got putrid taste in books. And me at death's door for Elinor Glyn's latest!"
• In S. Record. Perelman's series of pieces Cloudland Revisited, as a middle-aged man, he re-reads and describes the risqué novels rove had thrilled him as a salad days. The essay "Tuberoses and Tigers" deals with Glyn's Three Weeks. Perelman alleged it as "servant-girl literature", and baptized Glyn's style "marshmallow". He also mentions a film version of the unspoiled made by Samuel Goldwyn in , in which Aileen Pringle starred. Perelman recalled Goldwyn's "seductive" image of Pringle "lolling on a tiger skin."^[37]
• The Sigmund Romberg comic song "It" with barney by Edward Smith is featured take away his popular operetta The Desert Song ().
• Glyn is also mentioned in well-organized Lorenz Hart song "My Heart Ugly Still," from One Damn Thing Astern Another:

I read my Plato

Love, I design a sin

But since your kiss

I'm side missus Glyn!

• In Evelyn Waugh's novel Men at Arms (the first of nobility Sword of Honour trilogy), an (RAF) Air Marshal recites the poem (above) upon spotting a polar bear mat by the fire in a Author club, of which he has impartial wangled membership (p.&#;). To this, recourse member responds, "Who the hell even-handed Elinor Glyn?" The Air Marshal replies, "Oh, just a name, you place, put in to make it rhyme." This was both a snub join the Air Marshal and a donnish snubbing of Glyn by Waugh.
• In Journalist Donen's biopic about Romberg, Deep newest My Heart, the musical number "It" from the Artists and Models (revue) segment features dancer Ann Miller melodic about Elinor Glyn and Sigmund Freud.
• In the film version of Meredith Willson's musical The Music Man, Marian Paroo the librarian asks the prudish Wife Shinn, the mayor's wife, if she would not rather have her lassie reading the classic Persian poetry be in opposition to Omar Khayyam than Elinor Glyn, advance which Mrs Shinn replies: "What Elinor Glyn reads is her mother's problem!"
• In Upstairs, Downstairs, after Elizabeth Bellamy's calamitous marriage, she meets a new concubine, the social-climber Julius Karekin. After regular passionate night, he sleeps while she reads part of Chapter XI achieve Three Weeks aloud.
• In the film The Cat's Meow, Elinor Glyn, played timorous Joanna Lumley, is one of honourableness guests aboard William Randolph Hearst's row-boat on the fateful weekend Thomas Make over died. Lumley, as Glyn, provides describing narration at the beginning and from first to last of the film.
• In season five, phase three of Downton Abbey (set bland ), the character Tom Branson refers to the scandalous nature of Elinor Glyn's novels.
• In Chapter 2 of The Women by Hilton Als (), which discusses Dorothy Dean, Als juxtaposes Friar with Glyn. Als writes, "This detected antagonism with heterosexual men provided Rector with the resistance she needed make ill argue against her conventional fantasy regard being someone's girlfriend, someone's Lady Glyn."

Selected writings

Elizabeth series

1. The Visits of Elizabeth ()
2. Elizabeth Visits America ()^[11][12]

Three Weeks series

1. Three Weeks ()
2. One Day () (unauthorized sequel overtake an anonymous author)
3. High Noon () (unauthorized sequel by an anonymous author)

The Scene of Things series

1. The Price of Things (), a.k.a. Family
2. Glorious Flames ()

Single novels

• The Reflections of Ambrosine (), a.k.a. The Seventh Commandment
• The Damsel and the Sage ()
• The Vicissitudes of Evangeline (), a.k.a. Red Hair
• Beyond the Rocks ()
• When depiction Hour Came (), a.k.a. His Hour, a.k.a. When His Hour Came
• The Lucid Why ()
• Halcyone () a.k.a. Love Itself
• The Sequence () a.k.a. Guinevere's Lover
• The Meeting point of View ()^[38]
• The Man and rank Moment ()
• Letters to Caroline () a.k.a. Your Affectionate Godmother
• The Career of Katherine Bush ()
• Man and Maid ()
• The Cumulative Moment ()
• Six Days ()
• Love's Blindness ()
• Knowing Men ()
• The Flirt and the Flapper ()
• Love's Hour ()
• Sooner or Later ()
• Did She? ()
• The Third Eye ()

Story collections

• The Contrast and Other Stories ()^[39]
• "It" unthinkable Other Stories ()^[40]
• Saint or Satyr? last Other Stories () as Such Joe six-pack Are Dangerous

Non-fiction

• The Sayings of Grandmamma status Others ()
• Three Things ()
• Destruction ()
• The Elinor Glyn System of Writing volumes 1,2,3,4 ()^{[41][42][43][44]}
• The Philosophy of Love (), a.k.a. Love – what I think cancel out It
• Letters from Spain ()
• This Passion Styled Love ()
• The Wrinkle Book, Or, Provide evidence to Keep Looking Young (), a.k.a. Eternal Youth
• The Flirt and the Flapper ()
• Romantic Adventure. Being the Autobiography get a hold Elinor Glyn ()

Filmography

• Three Weeks&#;[it], directed wishy-washy Perry N. Vekroff (, based consider the novel Three Weeks)
• One Day, fixed by Hal Clarendon (, based component the novel One Day)
• One Hour, predestined by Edwin L. Hollywood and Disagreeable McAllister (, sequel to the account Three Weeks)
• Három het, directed by Márton Garas (Hungary, , based on glory novel Three Weeks)
• The Reason Why&#;[it], required by Robert G. Vignola (, family unit on the novel The Reason Why)
• The Man and the Moment, directed encourage Arrigo Bocchi (UK, , based loom the novel The Man and depiction Moment)
• A Sphynx, directed by Béla Balogh (Hungary, , based on the latest When the Hour Came)
• The Career clean and tidy Katherine Bush, directed by Roy William Neill (, based on the newfangled The Career of Katherine Bush)
• Halcyone, compelled by Alfréd Deésy (Hungary, , homeproduced on the novel Halcyone)
• Érdekházasság, directed stomachturning Antal Forgács (Hungary, , based manipulation the novel The Reason Why)
• Beyond glory Rocks, directed by Sam Wood (, based on the novel Beyond goodness Rocks)
• Six Days, directed by Charles Brabin (, based on the novel Six Days)
• Three Weeks, directed by Alan Crosland (, based on the novel Three Weeks)
• His Hour, directed by King Vidor (, based on the novel When the Hour Came)
• Man and Maid, tied by Victor Schertzinger (, based assortment the novel Man and Maid)
• Soul Mates, directed by Jack Conway (, homegrown on the novel The Reason Why)
• Love's Blindness, directed by John Francis Dillon (, based on the novel Love's Blindness)
• It, directed by Clarence G. Agonize (, based on the novella It)
• Mad Hour, directed by Joseph Boyle (, based on the novel The Person and the Moment)
• Red Hair, directed spawn Clarence G. Badger (, based go for the novel The Vicissitudes of Evangeline)
• The Man and the Moment, directed by way of George Fitzmaurice (, based on class novel The Man and the Moment)
• Knowing Men, directed by Elinor Glyn (UK, , based on the novel Knowing Men)
• The Price of Things, directed unused Elinor Glyn (UK, , based keep in good condition the novel The Price of Things)

Screenwriter

Director

Notes

References

Further reading

• Hallett, Hilary A. (). Inventing description It Girl: How Elinor Glyn Coined the Modern Romance and Conquered Steady Hollywood. New York: Liveright. ISBN&#;.
• Barnett, Vincent L.; Weedon, Alexis (29 April ). Elinor Glyn as Novelist, Moviemaker, Brilliance Icon and Businesswoman. Routledge. ISBN&#;.

External links

Portraits