The Reason Why

Elinor Glyn, born Elinor Sutherland, was an English novelist and scriptwriter who pioneered mass-market women's erotic fiction. She coined the use of It as a euphemism for sexuality, or sex appeal. Following the death of her father, her mother returned to the parental home in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Here Elinor was schooled by her grandmother (a minor French aristocrat) in the ways of upper-class society. This training not only gave her an entre 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. She was the celebrated author of such early twentieth century bestsellers as "It," "Three Weeks," "Beyond the Rocks," and other novels which were then considered quite racy, as tame as they might seem now.