Elinor Wylie was born in Somerville, New Jersey, on September 7, 1885. Because her father was appointed Solicitor General of the United States, her family moved to Washington DC, the city where she was raised. After her first book of poetry, Nets to Catch the Wind, was published in 1921, Wylie began to work as a literary editor for Vanity Fair. As she published more and more poetry, people began to recognize her melodious style and the deeply emotional content of her poems.

Not only was Wylie a poet, but she was also a novelist. Some of her novels include Jennifer Lorn (1923), The Orphan Angel (1926), and Mr. Hodge and Mr. Hazard (1928). Wylie married several times but kept the name of her second husband, Horace Wylie. She found happiness with third husband William Rose Benét, a fellow poet who edited her poetry collections and wrote a book about her work. Wylie died on December 16, 1928, from a stroke.