Elinor Glyn
British · Late 19th–early 20th century
British novelist and screenwriter who coined the concept of 'It' as an indefinable quality of charisma and sexual magnetism, and whose novel was adapted into the 1927 film starring Clara Bow.
Connection to Taylor Swift
Glyn's novel 'It' created the cultural concept of the 'It Girl' that Taylor uses as the foundational archetype of female celebrity in Clara Bow. Her controversial writing about lesbianism, androgyny, and divorce also parallels Taylor's engagement with female experience and gendered expectations.
Notable Works
- It (1927), Three Weeks (1907), The Vicissitudes of Evangeline (1905)
Appears in the Archive
Context within the Archive
It (1927)
“You look like Clara Bow”
Angela & Uncle Jerry discuss how Clara Bow was dubbed 'the It Girl' after starring in the 1927 film 'It,' adapted from Elinor Glyn's novel. The song's title and opening verse invoke Clara Bow as the archetype of early Hollywood female celebrity, and the film is the source of her 'It Girl' designation that the song builds its generational fame argument upon.