Examining the authorial and cross-media practices of the English novelist Elinor Glyn (1864-1943), Vincent L. Barnett and Alexis Weedon trace Glyn's work as a novelist in the United Kingdom, her success in Hollywood as an adaptor.
The first full-length study of the authorial and cross-media practices of the English novelist Elinor Glyn (1864-1943), Elinor Glyn as Novelist, Moviemaker, Glamour Icon and Businesswoman examines Glyn's work as a novelist in the United Kingdom followed by her success in Hollywood where she adapted her popular romantic novels into films. Making extensive use of newly available archival materials, Vincent L. Barnett and Alexis Weedon explore Glyn's experiences from multiple perspectives, including the artistic, legal and financial aspects of the adaptation process. At the same time, they document Glyn's personal and professional relationships with a number of prominent individuals in the Hollywood studio system, including Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg. The authors contextualize Glyn's involvement in scenario-writing in relationship to other novelists in Hollywood, such as Edgar Wallace and Arnold Bennett, and also show how Glyn worked across Europe and America to transform her stories into other forms of media such as plays and movies. Providing a new perspective from which to understand the historical development of both British and American media industries in the first half of the twentieth century, this book will appeal to historians working in the fields of cultural and film studies, publishing and business history.
'... offers rich new examples and perspectives for Adaptation Studies in particular ... The case study of Glyn also presents a wealth of original material for understanding the networks of stardom that developed in this period ... fertile ground for fresh considerations of Glyn's career and deeper exploration of women and film history in the early and interwar periods. Scholars can build on the key connections that the volume establishes through Barnett and Weedon's meticulous archival and business research. The book offers valuable groundwork upon which new histories and case studies can be written, illuminating the varied roles that women played within early film culture.' Women's History Review
