Elinor (Sutherland) Glyn (1864 - 1943)

Born 17 Oct 1864 in Saint Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands

Ancestors

Wife of Clayton Louis Glyn — married 27 Apr 1892 in Hanover Square, London, England

Descendants

Died 23 Sep 1943 at age 78 in London, England

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Biography

Elinor (Sutherland) Glyn is a member of Clan Sutherland.

Elinor (Sutherland) Glyn is Notable.

Elinor Glyn, née Sutherland, was a novelist and short-story writer known for her highly romantic tales with luxurious settings and improbable plots.

Elinor Glyn’s Canadian parents, Douglas Sutherland and Elinor Saunders, met in Guelph, Ontario, where Douglas was working as a civil engineer on the Grand Trunk Railway. Over the next few years, his work took the young couple to New York, Brazil and London, England, where their eldest daughter Lucy Christiana was born in 1863. Elinor was born in 1864. She was baptised on November 30, 1864 at Trinity Church, St. Marylebone Parish, Middlesex, England.^[1] Just three months after her birth, her 27-year-old father died of typhoid fever.^[2] Her mother returned to Canada with her daughters, and Elinor spent her early childhood years at her Saunders grandparents’ home in Guelph, Ontario.

In 1872, Elinor’s mother married 62-year-old bachelor David Kennedy, but only after he had promised to take his new family to live in Britain.^[3] A year later, the Kennedys crossed the Atlantic on the Circassian. After visiting his relations in Scotland and Yorkshire, Elinor’s stepfather rented a house near St. Helier on Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands. A doctor had persuaded him that the climate there would help improve his asthma. The move was a bitter disappointment to his young wife and stepdaughters, who had been looking forward to an exciting new life in England.^[4][5]

Kennedy’s modest income meant that Elinor and Lucy were educated, poorly, by a string of ill-paid governesses. Lucy, who would become a famous dress designer, spent much of her time sewing dresses for her dolls. Elinor became a voracious reader, a pastime that served her well in her future career as a novelist and Hollywood scriptwriter.

Her first book, The Visits of Elizabeth, was published in 1900. Its success encouraged her to write several more “society novels.” Her best-known work was Three Weeks published in 1907. Its story of a Balkan queen’s affair with an Englishman caused a sensation and was widely read.^[6]

Publicity photo, circa 1908

In 1892 Elinor married Clayton Louis Glyn, a wealthy barrister and landowner.^[7] They had two daughters: Margot Elinor, born 1893, and Juliet Evangeline, born 1898.^[8] Her marriage was troubled, her husband being more interested in food, drink, and gambling than in his wife. He was a spendthrift who eventually led the family into debt.

After Clayton's death in 1915,^[9] Elinor was forced to write out of necessity. Around this time she wrote The Career of Katherine Bush, the first novel in which the main character was not of aristocratic birth. She also wrote for Cosmopolitan and other magazines.

In 1920 she moved to Hollywood and began her career as a scriptwriter. Several of her own novels were filmed, including Three Weeks and It. Apart from being a scriptwriter for the silent movie industry, she had a brief career as one of the earliest female directors.

The American poet Ogden Nash wrote this verse about Elinor:

Would you like to sin,
With Elinor Glyn,
On a tiger skin.
Or would you prefer,
To err with her,
On some other fur.

She returned to England in 1929 and set up and financed her own production company, Elinor Glyn Productions Ltd. The company's two films were flops and the company failed. Elinor then retired from film work and focused on her first passion, writing novels and short stories.

In 1936 she completed her autobiography, Romantic Adventure.

She died September 23, 1943, in London after a short illness.^[10] and was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, London.^[11][12]

Sources

1. ↑ "England, Middlesex Parish Registers, 1539-1988", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6ZNM-R661 : 16 April 2021), Elinor Sutherland, 1864.
2. ↑ "England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2NLV-T4L : 31 December 2014), Douglas Sutherland, 1865; from "England & Wales Deaths, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Death, Pancras, London, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.
3. ↑ "Ontario Marriages, 1869-1927," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FMN9-G2G : 10 April 2015), David Kennedy and Elinor Sutherland, ; citing registration , York, York, Ontario, Canada, Archives of Ontario, Toronto; FHL microfilm 1,862,891.
4. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1881," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XQ4X-Z7N : accessed 26 December 2014), Elinor Kennedy in household of David Kennedy, St Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands; from "1881 England, Scotland and Wales census," index and images, findmypast (www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing p. , PRO RG 11/, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey; FHL microfilm .
5. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1891," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/3Y7Y-Y3Z : accessed 26 December 2014), Elenor Kennedy, England; from "1891 England, Scotland and Wales census," index and images, findmypast (www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 12, county, registration district, subdistrict, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.
6. ↑ Encyclopedia Britannica entry
7. ↑ "England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2DZ4-J4F : 13 December 2014), Elinor Sutherland, 1892; from “England & Wales Marriages, 1837-2005,” database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing 1892, quarter 2, vol. 1A, p. 763, St. George Hanover Square, London, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.
8. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "Elinor Glyn," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Elinor_Glyn&oldid=819704045 (accessed January 20, 2018).
9. ↑ "England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2JWX-RW3 : 31 December 2014), Clayton L Glyn, 1915; from "England & Wales Deaths, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Death, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.
10. ↑ "England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVCH-1GW2 : accessed 14 December 2015), Elinor Glyn, 1943; from "England & Wales Deaths, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Death, Chelsea, London, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.
11. ↑ Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 20 January 2018), memorial page for Elinor Glyn (17 Oct 1864–23 Sep 1943), Find A Grave Memorial no. 1263, citing Golders Green Crematorium, Golders Green, London Borough of Barnet, Greater London, England ; Maintained by Find A Grave .
12. ↑ "British Newspaper Archives, Obituaries", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q269-4ZKD : 18 March 2018), Elinor Glyn in entry for Edward Davson, 1937.

See also:

• Elinor Glyn Wikipedia
• Hardwick, Joan. Addicted to Romance: The Life and Adventures of Elinor Glyn. London: Andre Deutsch, 1994.
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography