If Elinor Glyn is remembered at all today, it is as the woman who coined the term “It” as a 1920s euphemism for sex appeal. The cultural hype surrounding “It” and the subsequent Hollywood film overshadowed the notoriety of Glyn’s famous novel Three Weeks, a tale of sexual adventure that scandalised Edwardian society. In turn, Three Weeks eclipsed Glyn’s earlier reputation as novelist of modern manners in the Austen tradition, but it is probably these earliest novels that are her most interesting.

Glyn was born Elinor Sutherland in Jersey on 17^th October 1864. Her mother, also called Elinor, was from an Anglo-French family who had emigrated to Canada, while her father, Douglas Sutherland, was of Scottish

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First published 02 March 2004

Citation: Harrington, Louise. "Elinor Glyn". The Literary Encyclopedia. 2 March 2004.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1773, accessed 20 November 2009.]