Edith Wharton

Literature / Writers Datebook: January 24

 


Brief biography and works of American novelist and short-story writer, Edith Wharton, considered one of America's master novelists. Pulitzer Prize winner for The Age of Innocence (1921).

 

 Edith Wharton was an American novelist and short story writer famous for novels The House of Mirth, The Age of Innocence, and Ethan Frome. All three novels have been made into films. Wharton was one of the first women to receive an honorary degree from Yale University.  

Edith Wharton (born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937)  was an American writer and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray realistically the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, for her novel The Age of Innocence. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1996. Among her other well known works are The House of Mirth, the novella Ethan Frome, and several notable ghost stories.

She became a lifelong friend of American novelist Henry James, who she met when she moved to France in 1910. Her best works satirized New York's class structures, in particular the clash of old wealthy families of the 'nouveau riche', who had made their fortunes in more recent years.

 

Early Life

Edith Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones, on January 24, 1862 into New York's aristocratic and rich, upper-class society, the daughter of George Frederic and Lucretia Jones. The little girl received instruction on how to be a proper young lady. Her creativity started early as a child where she began making up stories, writing  poems and a novella in her teens, something not encouraged among the wealthy  in her days. She never attended formal schooling, but received her education from a governess, and the books she borrowed from her father's extensive library. Her education, however, was not deemed as important as finding a suitable husband. Little, if any, did she do more writing during the first years of her marriage, at age 23, to wealthy Edward Wharton, a Boston banker ten years her senior. Edith Jones became Edith Wharton when she married Robbins Wharton, a Boston banker, in 1885. Ten years her senior, Robbins Wharton proved to be stuffy, and possessed of an intellect which could not match Edith's own. The couple divorced in 1913 after 28 years of marriage.

Writing and the Novelist

Following a nervous breakdown when she was 32, Wharton was advised that writing might be therapeutic and help her recover. Although Edith had written a novella as a teenager, she did not publish her first book until she was 35 years old. Three years later she published a non-fiction book (co-authored with her friend Ogden Codman, Jr) for architects and home decorators, The Decoration of Houses, that launched her writing career. Wharton had hired Codman to redecorate her summer home, and found that they shared a passion for simplicity in architecture and home furnishings. Both disliked the heavy, dark style that prevailed during the period, and decided to write a book on their ideas. The book remains a must read for architects and decorators. 

Her first novel, Valley of Decision (1902), was published when she was 40, but The House of Mirth was her first successful novel, that launched her writing career and established her into a serious author. It is the story of a beautiful but poor young woman trying to survive in New York City.  Later, her 1920 novel The Age of Innocence earned her a Pulitzer Prize in 1921, the first fiction to be given to a woman.  By 1907, Edith Wharton had settled in France, where she first met her lifelong friend and mentor, Henry James. She spent her time in Europe writing steadily, entertaining friends, gardening, and visiting with important writers, politicians, and great thinkers.


Involvement in World War I

During World War I, Edith Wharton emerged herself in relief work. She wrote reports for American newspapers, organized and ran war charities, established refugee shelters and convalescent homes, and distributed medical supplies at the front. Using her skills as a writer, she detailed what she saw around her in a series of essays, through which she urged the United States to support France. For her efforts, Edith Wharton was one of the first women to receive the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

Final Years and Legacy

In 1923, Edith Wharton made her last voyage to the United States to receive an honorary degree from Yale, the first of such degrees to be given to a woman. Seven years later, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Edith Wharton died on August 11, 1937 after suffering several strokes. Her grave lies in Paris, under a tombstone which reads Ave Crux Spes Unica, meaning "Hail, Cross, the one hope."

At the time of her death, Edith Wharton had published 44 books, including novels, non-fiction works, and her autobiography.

 
Notable Works by Edith Wharton

Valley of Decision, 1902

The House of Mirth, 1905

Tales of Men and Ghosts, 1910

Ethan Frome, 1911

The Custom of the Country, 1913

The Marne, 1918

The Age of Innocence, 1920

Old New York, 1924

The Mother's Recompense, 1925

Twilight Sleep, 1927

The World Over, 1936

 

Photo Credit:

Edith Wharton. Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain.  (Photograph of writer Edith Wharton, taken by E. F. Cooper, at Newport, Rhode Island. Cabinet photograph. Courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University.)

 

Resources:

Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Chambers (2002)

Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring, Larousse (1994)  

Edith Wharton. en.wikipedia.org

 

(c)  January 2009. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.