Writer, born in New York City, New York, USA. Raised in a wealthy old family, she was privately educated and travelled often in Europe, where she met her lifelong friend and mentor, Henry James. She married a Boston banker, Edward Robbins Wharton (1885), and they divided their time between homes in New York City, Newport, RI, Lenox, MA, and Europe. Her husband was 10 years older than she, and gradually deteriorated from a mental illness, so she devoted herself to her early passion for writing (she had privately printed a volume of her poems in 1878). Her first book The Decoration of Houses (co-written with Ogden Codman Jr, 1897), was about interior decoration, but also prefigured her concern with the social mores of her class. Her first novel was The Valley of Decision (1902), but the first to gain popularity was The House of Mirth (1905). This was followed by her minor classic, Ethan Frome (1911).
By 1907 she had effectively settled in France, and in 1913 divorced Wharton. During World War 1 she was active in relief work in France, and also travelled extensively, later writing about her travels in Italy and Morocco. Over her lifetime she was friendly with many of the most notable men of the time, including Bernard Berenson and Theodore Roosevelt. Perhaps her most admired collection of short fiction, Xingu and Other Stories, was published in 1916, and Age of Innocence (1920) won the Pulitzer Prize, the first in fiction awarded to a woman. Other works include her thoughts on literature, The Writing of Fiction (1925), and her autobiography, A Backward Glance (1934). She was noted for her polished prose and for her ability to capture the psychological realities of her characters; as for her themes, she attacked the hypocrisies and rigidities of the old society she came from, but she also had little liking for the new moneyed class she saw emerging around her.
Edith Wharton|
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| Born: |
January 24, 1862 |
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| Died: |
August 11, 1937 |
| Occupation(s): | Novelist, short story writer, designer |
Edith Wharton (January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and designer.
Early life
Born Edith Newbold Jones, to a wealthy New York family often associated with the phrase "Keeping up with the Joneses," Edith combined her insights into the privileged classes with her natural wit to write novels and short fiction that are notable for their humor, incisiveness, and uneventfullness.
In 1885, at 23 years of age, she married Edward (Teddy) Robbins Wharton, who was 12 years her senior. For several years at the end of her tumultuous unhappy marriage, she had an affair with William Morton Fullerton (1865 - 1952), an American-born bisexual man-about-town who worked as a journalist for The Times and juggled romances with Lord Ronald Gower, and the Ranee of Sarawak.
Critical acclaim and World War I
Between 1900 and 1937, Wharton wrote many novels; the first to be published was her 1905 masterpiece The House of Mirth, which constitutes the first of many large-scale efforts to expose the oppressive nature and intolerance of her old New York.
With the help of her influential connections in the French government (primarily her relationship with Walter Berry--who was, at the time, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris), she was among the few foreigners in France who had any access to their funds during the war and was also allowed to travel extensively by motorcar to the dangerous front lines of the action. In 1916, Wharton edited a volume entitled The Book of the Homeless, featuring writings, art, and musical scores from many of the biggest names in the artistic fields of the day.
Later life
Her best known work, The Age of Innocence (1920), won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize.
Wharton was friend and confidante to many gifted intellectuals of her time: Henry James, Sinclair Lewis, Jean Cocteau, and Ernest Hemingway were all guests of hers at one time or another. 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.
Edith Wharton was also highly regarded as a landscape architect and a taste-maker of her time. She wrote several influential books including The Decoration of Houses and Italian Villas.
Wharton continued writing until her death on August 11, 1937, aged 75, in Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt, (former département of Seine-et-Oise, in the part that is now) Val-d'Oise, Île-de-France, France.
Wharton's last novel, The Buccaneers, was unfinished at the time of her death.
Characteristics of her writing
One characteristic of many Wharton novels is the frequent use of irony. When she depicted it in such works as The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence she made fun of the narrow-minded and ignorant upper class through a deft use of irony.
Spoiler Warning
She often used tribal diction to describe the ritualistic practices of upper-class New York as well as precise diction to poke fun at how very particular the people were.
Works
Ethan Frome Summer The Age of Innocence The Custom of the Country The Bunner Sisters The Glimpses of the Moon The House of Mirth The Reef Hudson River Bracketed The Gods Arrive The Touchstone The BuccaneersPublished as
Novels (R.W.B. Includes The House of Mirth, The Reef, The Custom of the Country, and The Age of Innocence. Collected Stories 1891-1910 (Maureen Howard, ed.) (The Library of America, 2001) ISBN 1-883011-93-0 Collected Stories 1911-1937 (Maureen Howard, ed.) (The Library of America, 2001) ISBN 1-883011-94-9 Selected Poems (Louis Auchincloss, ed.) (The Library of America, 2005) ISBN 1-931082-86-3 Twilight Sleep (R.F.Godfrey, ed.) ISBN 0-684-83964-4In Popular Culture
Edith Wharton (played by actress Clare Higgins) travels across North Africa with Indiana Jones in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (Chapter 16, which is entitled Tales of Innocence).
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