Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton (January 24, 1862 - August 11, 1937), is considered one of the most important American novelists and short story writers of the 20th century.

- Edith Wharton -

Born Edith Newbold Jones, to a wealthy New York family, Edith combined her insights into the privileged classes with her natural wit to write novels and short fiction which are notable for their humor and incisiveness.

In 1885, aged 23, she married Edward (Teddy) Robbins Wharton, who was twelve years her senior. They were divorced in 1913.

Between 1900 and 1938, Wharton wrote many novels, starting in 1905 with the publication of the House of Mirth[?], a story that attacked the aristocratic society of which she was a most prominent member. An admirer of European culture and architecture, Edith Wharton crossed the Atlantic 66 times during her life.

She was living on the very fashionable rue de Varenne in Paris, France when World War I began, and, using her many high level connections within the French government, she was allowed to travel extensively by motorcar to the front lines. In Paris, she worked for the Red Cross and with refugees, for which she was awarded the French Légion d'honneur (Legion of Honor). Following the War, she returned to the United States only one more time in her life.

Although most were poor and not part of her refined world, she was fascinated and encouraged by the gathering of the artistic community in Montmartre and Montparnasse at the turn of the century.

Her best known work, The Age of Innocence[?], won her a Pulitzer Prize and was written in 1920. She spoke flawless French and many of her books were published in both French and English.

Wharton was friend and confidant of many gifted intellectuals of her time: Theodore Roosevelt, F Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway were all guests of hers at one time or another. She was also good friends with Henry James and Jean Cocteau.

Wharton continued writing until her death on August 11, 1937, in St.-Brice-sous-Forêt[?], Val-d'Oise, Île-de-France, France. She is buried in the Cimetiere des Gonards, Versailles, France.

In 2001, two of her books, House of Mirth[?] and The Age of Innocence[?], would be named to the list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century by the editorial board of the American Modern Library.

Bibliography:

• Verses - 1878
• The Decoration of Houses - 1897
• The Greater Inclination - 1899
• The Touchstone - 1900
• Crucial Instances - 1901
• The Valley of Decision - 1902
• Italian Villas and Their Gardens - 1904
• The House of Mirth - 1905
• Italian Backgrounds - 1905
• The Fruit of the Tree - 1907
• Madame de Treymes - 1907
• A Motor-Flight Through France - 1908
• Artemis to Actaeon and Other Verse - 1909
• Ethan Frome - 1912
• The Reef - 1912
• The Custom of the Country - 1913
• Fighting France, from Dunkerque to Belfort - 1915
• The Book of the Homeless - 1916
• Xingu and Other Stories - 1916
• Summer - 1917
• The Marne - 1918
• French Ways and Their Meaning - 1919
• The Age of Innocence - 1920
• In Morocco - 1920
• The Glimpses of the Moon - 1922
• A Son at the Front - 1923
• Old New York - 1924
• 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
• A Backward Glance - 1934
• The Buccaneers - 1938

External Links

e-texts of some of Edith Wharton's works:

• The Age Of Innocence (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=115)
• Bunner Sisters (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=305)
• The Descent Of Man And Other Stories (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=502)
• Ethan Frome (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=625)
• Fighting France, From Dunkerque To Belfort (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=677)
• The Glimpses Of The Moon (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=767)
• The Hermit And The Wild Woman (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=861)
• House Of Mirth (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=929)
• Madame De Treymes (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=1226)
• The Reef (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=1962)
• Summer (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=2103)
• Tales Of Men And Ghosts (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=2194)
• The Touchstone (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=2187)
• The Valley Of Decision (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=1605)