Edith Wharton - (1862-1937)
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Read other essays on Edith Wharton written by retired
Rhode Island teacher Sue Huetteman and New York students
Ilana Gross and Molly Avila. I. Biography
Edith Wharton was born on January 24, 1862, in New York City, as Edith Newbold Jones. Her parents were George and Lucretia Jones, and she had two older
brothers, Frederic and Harry. Edith lived in aristocratic NY society and was taught the mannerisms and expectations of the higher society. She received no formal education; instead she was primarily self-educated.
At 17, Edith created a collection of writing, and also submitted poetry to The World. Her father passed away when she was 20. She married Edward Norton Robbins Wharton
(Teddy informally) on April 29, 1885. In 1890, she had published "Mrs. Manstey's View," "The Fullness of Life," and "Bunner Sisters," and continued to publish more works. In
1901, her mother passed away. In the years of 1901-1902 she designed and had built The Mount, her home based on her ideas of design, in Lenox, Massachusetts. The Mount is now a Historical Landmark. In 1905,
The House of Mirth was published and in 1907 she settled in Paris. One of the works published after her success with The House of Mirth would be Ethan Frome,in 1911. Ethan Frome
is claimed to be one of her best works. Also in 1911, Wharton began an affair with Morton Fullerton that would last two years. After the affair ended, in 1913, her marriage with Teddy was annulled.
Before World War I, Wharton, and her friend, Walter Berry, traveled to Europe, Germany, the U.S., and North Africa. Wharton helped with refugees in Paris during the war, and
created the American Hostels for Refugees. In 1916, the President of France appointed her a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
Edith Wharton became the first woman to ever be awarded the Pulitzer Prize, for her book The Age of Innocence, in 1921. In 1923, she received an honor's doctorate from Yale
University, and in 1930 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Wharton lived in France where she continued to write until she died of a stroke in August, 1937. II. Influences
New York City society was a major influence in Wharton's life. It required her to be passive and repressed. These restrictions caused her to reveal her emotions through her
works. The society discouraged her from achieving anything past a marriage. Wharton rebelled against these societal pressures through her life and works.
Wharton was also greatly influenced in her writing by her friend, Henry James. III. Some of Edith Wharton's Works Verses (1878) IV. Links "Edith Wharton 1862-1937 Chronological Bibliography." 31 May 2000.
The Decoration of Houses (with Ogden Codman, Jr. 1897)
The Greater Inclination (1899)
The Valley of Decision (1902)
Italian Villas and Their Gardens (1904)
The House of Mirth (1905)
Artemis to Actaeon and Other Verses (1909)
Ethan Frome (1911)
The Book of the Homeless (editor, 1916)
Summer (1917)
The Age of Innocence (1902)
Old New York (1923)
Here and Beyond (1926)
Certain People (1930)
The Gods Arrive (1932)
A Backward Glance (1934)
Ghosts (1937)
The Buccaneers (1938, posthumous)
"Edith Wharton Life Overview." 31 May 2000.
http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/6741/lifeoverview.html
Save America's Treasures Official Project. "The Mount Edith Wharton Restoration." 31 May 2000.
http://www.edithwharton.org
V. Sources
"Edith Wharton 1862-1937 Chronological Bibliography." 31 May 2000.
Edith Wharton Life Overview." 31 May 2000.
http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/6741/lifeoverview.html
"Edith Wharton's World." 31 May 2000.
http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/wharton/whar3.htm
This essay was submitted by a student of Marylin Dykens, a teacher at Rome Free Academy in Rome New York.