INVENTING THE IT GIRL

A terrific biography of a revolutionary 19th-century British author and sexual trailblazer.

Inspired by her dissertation on “the sexual politics of early Hollywood,” Hallett, a history professor and director of American studies at Columbia, rediscovers the overlooked literary legacy of Elinor Glyn (1864-1943). Born in the Channel Islands, she was raised by her grandmother, who molded her in the ways of British aristocracy. Despite an awareness of 19th-century “wifely duty” and Victorian ideals, Glyn’s early “mistrust of womanly submission ran deep.” As an adult, she bedazzled society circles with her bright red hair and green eyes. She married a wealthy landowner, birthed two daughters, and traveled extensively across Europe and Egypt, journeys the author describes in pleasingly lavish detail. A “sexual and temperamental mismatch” sunk the marriage, but not before Glyn began straying with assorted men and penning feverishly scandalous novels in the early 1900s. In time, she would become known as the “founder of the modern sex novel,” even amid the strict media and censorship rules of the era. Indifferent to ostracism from naysaying British society, she defiantly continued publishing erotically focused books—including Three Weeks (1907), a massive bestseller that was translated into “every major European language”—featuring her cultural touchstone Tiger Queen, a temptress character known for bawdy escapades. Eventually relocating to Hollywood, Glyn popularized the concept of the it girl, a sobriquet for a woman with remarkable sex appeal. Renowned flapper Clara Bow was one of the first to fondly embody this moniker and openly recognized Glyn as “the original model of a new kind of sexually emancipated, professionally independent, and spiritually brave woman who inspired so many.” In this appealing follow-up to her first book, Go West, Young Women: The Rise of Early Hollywood, Hallett creates a vivacious, intellectual, and fascinating narrative, and her impressive research effectively highlights an extraordinary life that aimed to “let loose the genie of women’s sexual liberation.”

A brilliant, thought-provoking portrait of a forgotten 20th-century influencer.