Edith Wharton (January 24, 1862 РAugust 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and designer. ^[1] 1915 photo, public domain, fair use This image is in the public domain in the United States and possibly other jurisdictions. ... is the 24th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about 1862 . ... New York, New York redirects here. ... is the 223rd day of the year (224th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Saint-Brice-sous-For̻t is a town and commune of the Val-dOise d̩partement, in France, located 30 km north of Paris. ... This article is about work. ... All Saints Chapel in the Cathedral Basilica of St. ... is the 24th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about 1862 . ... is the 223rd day of the year (224th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ... This article is in need of attention. ... All Saints Chapel in the Cathedral Basilica of St. ...

Early life

Edith Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones to the wealthy New York family often associated with the phrase "Keeping up with the Joneses". She combined her insider's view of America's privileged classes with a brilliant, natural wit to write humorous and incisive novels and short stories. As such, she was well-acquainted with many of her era's literary and public figures, including Henry James and Theodore Roosevelt. This article is about the state. ... Look up keep up with the Joneses in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses of this name, see Henry James (disambiguation). ... Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. ...

In 1885, at twenty-three years of age, she married Edward (Teddy) Robbins Wharton, who was twelve years her senior. He was a Bostonian banker, and had little in common with Wharton. He eventually began spending money on younger women and this began to take a toll on Wharton's mental health. They divorced in 1913, after he suffered a nervous breakdown and was confined to a hospital. Besides her writing, Wharton was a highly regarded landscape architect, interior designer, and taste-maker of her time. She wrote several influential books, including The Decoration of Houses, her first published work, and Italian Villas and Their Gardens. Year 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Central Park, like all parks, is an example of landscape architecture. ... It has been suggested that Interior decoration be merged into this article or section. ... The Decoration of Houses, a manual of interior design written by Edith Wharton with architect Ogden Codman in 1898. ...

Literary Success

The Mount, 2006

In 1901 she built The Mount, her estate in Lenox, Massachusetts, which she designed as an example of her design principles. The house and its gardens have been extensively restored and are open to the public from May through October. There, Edith Wharton wrote several of her novels, including The House of Mirth (1905), which is the first of many large-scale chronicles of the true nature of old New York. Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... Year 1901 (MCMI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... The Mount (1902) is a country house in Lenox, Massachusetts, the home of noted American author Edith Wharton who designed the house and its grounds. ... Location in Berkshire County in Massachusetts Coordinates: , Country State County Berkshire County Settled 1750 Incorporated 1767 Government  - Type Open town meeting Area  - Town  21. ... All Saints Chapel in the Cathedral Basilica of St. ... For other uses, see House (disambiguation). ... For the chosen plaintext attack used by the British during World War II, see gardening (cryptanalysis). ... For other uses, see May (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see October (disambiguation). ... The House of Mirth (1905), by Edith Wharton, is a novel about New York socialite Lily Bart attempting to secure a husband and a place in rich society. ...

She lived at The Mount until 1911, while simultaneously being attached to life in France. First living at 58 Rue de Varenne, Paris, in an apartment belonging to George Washington Vanderbilt II. Then, in 1918, once World War I subsided, she abandoned the fashionable apartment for the Pavillon Colombe at nearby Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt, and, finally, she bought Sainte-Claire le Château, a former convent, in the southern village of Hyères, where she lived the winters and springs. George W. Vanderbilt II George Washington Vanderbilt II (November 14, 1862 – March 6, 1914) was a member of the prominent United States Vanderbilt family. ... Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt is a town and commune of the Val-dOise département, in France, located 30 km north of Paris. ... A square in Hyeres. ...

Helped by her husband and her influential connections in the French government, primarily Walter Berry (then president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris) and, in her words, "the love of all my life", she was of the few foreigners in France with any war-time access to their money; she was allowed travel to the front lines. Wharton described those trips in the series of articles Fighting France: From Dunkerque to Belfort.

Throughout the war, she worked in charitable efforts for refugees, and, in 1916, was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in reward. The scope of her relief work included: work rooms for unemployed Frenchwomen, concerts to provide work for musicians, tuberculosis hospitals, and founding the American Hostels for Belgian refugees. In 1916, Wharton edited The Book of the Homeless, writings, art, and musical scores by most every major contemporary European artist. She returned to the U.S. only once after the war, to receive an honorary doctorate degree from Yale University in 1923. Medal for the officer class, decorated with a rosette Napoleon wearing the Grand Cross The President of France is the Grand Master of the Legion. ... Yale redirects here. ...

Later life

Edith Wharton c. 1919

The Age of Innocence (1920), perhaps her best known work, won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for literature, making her the first woman to win the award. She spoke flawless French and many of her books were published in both French and English. Image File history File links Edith_wharton_face. ... Image File history File links Edith_wharton_face. ... For other uses, see Age of innocence. ... The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1921. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Wharton was friend and confidante to many gifted intellectuals of her time: Henry James, Sinclair Lewis, Jean Cocteau, and André Gide were all guests of hers at one time or another. Bernard Berenson and Kenneth Clark were valued friends as well, and she was the godmother of Clark's second son, Colin (1932–2002), who wrote the book The Prince, the Showgirl and Me about his work as third assistant director of the film The Prince and the Showgirl. Her meeting with F. Scott Fitzgerald is described by the editors of her letters as "one of the better-known failed encounters in the American literary annals". She was also good friends with Theodore Roosevelt. For other uses of this name, see Henry James (disambiguation). ... Sinclair Lewis Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 — January 10, 1951) was an American novelist and playwright. ... Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker. ... Gide redirects here. ... Bernard Berenson in the garden of his estate Villa I Tatti in 1911 Bernard Berenson (born Bernhard Valvrojenski, June 26, 1865 – October 6, 1959), was an American art historian. ... Kenneth Clark presenting the BBC TV series Civilisation. ... The Prince and the Showgirl is a 1957 Hollywood film starring Marilyn Monroe and co-starring Laurence Olivier who also directed and produced it. ... Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American Jazz Age author of novels and short stories. ... Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. ...

Wharton continued writing until her death on August 11, 1937, aged 75, in Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt, France. She is buried in the Cimetière des Gonards in Versailles, France. is the 223rd day of the year (224th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt is a town and commune of the Val-dOise département, in France, located 30 km north of Paris. ... The Cimetière des Gonards began operations in 1879 on a 130,000 m² property in the wealthy Parisian suburb of Versailles, France. ... This article is about the city of Versailles. ...

Wharton's last novel, The Buccaneers, was unfinished at the time of her death. Marion Mainwaring finished the story after carefully studying the notes and synopsis Wharton had previously written. The novel was published in 1938 (unfinished version) and 1993 (Mainwaring's completion). The Buccaneers is the last novel written by Edith Wharton. ... Marion Mainwaring (1922- ) is an American writer. ...

Death

She died in 1937 at her villa, Pavilion Colombes, near Saint Brice, Seine-et-Oise. ^[1]

Characteristics of her writing

Many of Wharton's novels are characterized by a subtle use of dramatic irony. Having grown up in upper-class pre-World War I society, Wharton became one of its most astute critics. In such works as The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence she employed both humor and profound empathy to describe the lives of New York's upper-class and the vanishing of their world in the early years of the 20th century. Adolf Hitler - an example of visual irony Irony is a form of speech in which the real meaning is concealed or contradicted by the words used. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... The House of Mirth (1905), by Edith Wharton, is a novel about New York socialite Lily Bart attempting to secure a husband and a place in rich society. ... For other uses, see Age of innocence. ...

Works

• Verses, 1878 (novel)
• Only a Child, 1879 (poem)
• The Decoration of Houses, 1897
• The Greater Inclination, 1899
• The Touchstone, 1900
• The Line of Least Resistance, 1900
• The Rembrandt, 1900
• April Showers, 1900
• Crucial Instances, 1901
• The Moving Finger, 1901
• The Recovery, 1901
• Margaret of Cortona, 1901 (poem)
• The Valley of Decision, 1902
• The Quicksand, 1902
• The Reckoning, 1902
• The Mission of Jane, 1902
• The Dilletante, 1903
• The Vice of Reading, 1903
• Italian Villas and Their Gardens, 1904
• The Last Asset, 1904
• The Letter, 1904
• The Other Two, 1904
• The Pot-Boiler, 1904
• The Best Man, 1905
• The House of Mirth, 1905
• Italian Backgrounds, 1905
• In Trust, 1906
• The Introducers, 1906
• The Fruit of the Tree, 1907
• Madame de Treymes, 1907
• A Motor-Flight Through France, 1908
• The Bolted Door, 1908
• Expiation, 1908
• Artemis to Actaeon and Other Verses, 1909
• A Grave, 1909 (poem)
• Ogrin the Hermit, 1909
• The Comrade, 1910
• The Letters, 1910
• Other Times, Other Manners, 1911
• Ethan Frome, 1912
• The Reef, 1912
• The Long Run, 1912
• The Custom of the Country, 1913
• Coming Home, 1915
• Fighting France, from Dunkerque to Belfort, 1915
• The Great Blue Tent, 1915 (poem)
• The Book of the Homeless, 1916
• Xingu and Other Stories, 1916
• The Bunner Sisters, 1916
• Summer, 1917
• The Marne, 1918
• The Refugees, 1919
• French Ways and Their Meaning, 1919
• The Seed of the Faith, 1919
• Writing a War Story, 1919
• The Age of Innocence, 1920
• In Morocco, 1921
• In Provence and Lyrical Epigrams, 1920 (poem)
• The Glimpses of the Moon, 1922
• A Son at the Front, 1923
• Old New York, 1924 (novel)
• The Mother's Recompense, 1925
• The Writing of Fiction, 1925
• Here and Beyond, 1926
• Twelve Poems, 1926
• Twilight Sleep, 1927
• The Children, 1928
• Hudson River Bracketed, 1929
• The Gods Arrive, 1932
• Roman Fever, 1934
• A Backward Glance, 1934
• The Buccaneers, 1938

The Decoration of Houses, a manual of interior design written by Edith Wharton with architect Ogden Codman in 1898. ... The House of Mirth (1905), by Edith Wharton, is a novel about New York socialite Lily Bart attempting to secure a husband and a place in rich society. ... Ethan Frome is a novel that was released in 1911 by the Pulitzer Prize-winning American author Edith Wharton. ... The Custom of the Country is a 1913 novel by Edith Wharton, published when she was 51 years old. ... Summer is a novel by Edith Wharton published in 1917 by Charles Scribners Sons. ... For other uses, see Age of innocence. ... Roman fever refers to a particularly deadly strain of malaria that affected Rome, Italy, throughout various epochs in history; an epidemic of Roman Fever. ... The Buccaneers is the last novel written by Edith Wharton. ...

Additional Publications

• Novels (R.W.B. Lewis, ed.) (The Library of America, 1986) ISBN 978-0-94045031-8. Includes The House of Mirth, The Reef, The Custom of the Country, and The Age of Innocence.
• The Letters of Edith Wharton (R.W.B. Lewis and Nancy Lewis, eds.) ISBN 0-02-034400-7, particularly the editorial introductions to the chronological sections, especially for 1902–07, 1911–14, 1919–27, and 1928–37, and the editorial footnotes to the letter to F.S. Fitzgerald (June 8, 1925)
• Novellas and Other Writings (Cynthia Griffin Wolff, ed.) (The Library of America, 1990) ISBN 978-0-94045053-0, which contains her autobiography, A Backward Glance.
• Collected Stories 1891-1910 (Maureen Howard, ed.) (The Library of America, 2001) ISBN 978-1-88301193-2
• Collected Stories 1911-1937 (Maureen Howard, ed.) (The Library of America, 2001) ISBN 978-1-88301194-9
• Selected Poems (Louis Auchincloss, ed.) (The Library of America, 2005) ISBN 978-1-93108286-0
• Twilight Sleep (R.F.Godfrey, ed.) ISBN 0-684-83964-4

Louis Auchincloss (born September 27, 1917) is a prolific U.S. novelist, historian and essayist. ...

Further reading

• Hermione Lee (2007) Edith Wharton, Chatto & Windus, ISBN-10 0701166657 (UK)/Knopf (USA forthcoming)

• R.W.B. Lewis (1975) Edith Wharton: A Biography, Harper & Row.

• Cynthia Griffin Wolff (1977) A Feast of Words

• Shari Benstock (1994) No Gifts From Chance: A Biography of Edith Wharton

Richard W. B. Lewis (1917- June 13, 2002) was an American literary scholar and critic. ...

In Popular Culture

In The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Edith Wharton (Clare Higgins) travels across North Africa with Indiana Jones in Chapter 16, Tales of Innocence. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles is an Emmy Award-winning American television series that ran from 1992 to 1996. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...  Northern Africa (UN subregion)  geographic, including above North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Africa. ... Dr. Henry Walden Jones, Jr. ...

Edith Wharton is mentioned in the HBO television series "Entourage" in the third season's thirteenth episode: Vince is handed a screenplay for Wharton's The Glimpses of the Moon by Amanda, his new agent, for a film to be directed by Sam Mendes. For other uses, see HBO (disambiguation). ... Entourage is an Emmy Award-winning HBO original series created by Doug Ellin that chronicles the rise of Vincent Chase — a young A-list movie star — and his childhood friends from Queens, New York City as they navigate the unfamiliar terrain of Hollywood, California. ... Sam Mendes Samuel Alexander Mendes, CBE (born August 1, 1965) is an English stage and film director born in Reading, Berkshire, England. ...

In the same episode, period films of Wharton's work are lampooned, by agent Ari Gold, who says that all her stories are "about a guy who likes a girl, but he can't have sex with her for five years, because THOSE WERE THE TIMES!" ; Carla Gugino, who plays Amand, was the protagonist of the BBC-PBS adaptation of The Buccaneers (1995), one of her early jobs. Ariel A. Ari Gold is a character on the comedy-drama television series Entourage. ... Carla Gugino (born August 29, 1971) is an American actress best known for her roles of Ingrid Cortez in the Spy Kids trilogy and the title character of the TV series Karen Sisco. ... The Buccaneers is the last novel written by Edith Wharton. ...

Suzanne Vega's seventh studio release Beauty & Crime contains a song named "Edith Wharton's Figurines." Suzanne Vega (born Suzanne Nadine Vega, 11 July 1959, Santa Monica, California) is an American songwriter and singer known for her highly literate lyrics and eclectic folk-inspired music. ... Beauty & Crime is the seventh studio album release by New York-based singer/songwriter and musician Suzanne Vega. ...

References

The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 202nd day of the year (203rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Wikisource has original works written by or about:

Edith Wharton

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Edith Wharton

• The Mount - Estate and gardens designed by Edith Wharton
• The Edith Wharton Papers at the Lilly Library, Indiana University
• "Edith Wharton's passionate realism". A review of Hermione Lee's Edith Wharton in the TLS, February 9th, 2007.
• Edith Wharton Society includes links to all Wharton's works legally available on the web, links to resources, searchable texts, bibliographies, queries and replies, and other materials.

• Works by Edith Wharton at Project Gutenberg
• Pushkin Press - Edith Wharton - Glimpses of the Moon
• Edith Wharton at the Internet Broadway Database
• Edith Wharton at the Internet Movie Database
• Free book downloads in HTML, PDF, text formats at ebooktakeaway.com