Elinor Glyn (
October 17,
1864 -
September 23,
1943), born Elinor Sutherland, was a
British novelist and scriptwriter who pioneered mass-market women's
erotic fiction. She coined the use of
It as a
euphemism for sex appeal.
Elinor Glyn was born in Saint Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands. Following the death of her father, her mother returned to the parental home in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Here Elinor was schooled by her grandmother, Lucy Anne Saunders nee Willcocks (an Anglo-Irish aristocrat and daughter of Sir Richard Willcocks ) in the ways of upper-class society. This training not only gave her an entrée into aristocratic circles on her return to Europe, but it led her to be considered an authority on style and breeding when she worked in Hollywood in the 1920s.
Glyn was the younger sister of Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, famous as the fashion designer "Lucile".
She had a long lasting affair between 1906 and 1916 with George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston.
