Her Advice

Elinor Sutherland was born on the 17th October 1864 in Saint Helier, Jersey, in the Channel Islands. Her father died when she was 2 months old and her mother returned to Canada with both baby Elinor and her sister. In the 7 years they were there Elinor was taught by her grandmother. Her mother remarried in 1871 and the family returned again to Jersey and her education continued, this time under the supervision of Governesses. Elinor married in 1892 to a wealthy but spendthrift barrister and Essex landowner. She began writing late in her life and it was only in 1900 that her first book was published. By 1908 her husband had fallen into debt and she was now writing a novel a year to maintain the family’s standard of living. The marriage was troubled, and she had affairs with several British aristocrats, notably Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India, that lasted almost a decade. Her literary style was very successful and, although by modern standards would be called ‘romance’, in those days it was considered racy and erotic fiction. She coined the first use of the word the ‘It girl’. During World War I, Glyn became a war correspondent and at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, in 1919 was one of only two women present. In the 1920’s Glyn went to Hollywood, for the filming of her novel ‘The Great Moment’. Thereafter she was engaged to write stories and screenplays and became one of the most famous and successful women screenwriters of the era. She had a brief career as one of the first female directors and on one occasion in the film ‘It’, made a cameo appearance. In 1929 Glyn returned to England in part because of tax demands. She now formed her own production company, Elinor Glyn Ltd, to which she assigned her copyrights, and in return received an income and later an annuity. The firm was an early pioneer of cross-media branding. However, the forays into producing and financing caused the company to fail. She now took up again with her first love; writing novels. Elinor Glyn died on the 23rd September 1943 in Chelsea, London. She was 78.