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Edith Wharton Facts

Edith Wharton Facts
Edith Wharton was an American writer best known for the novels The Age of Innocence and Ethan Frome. She was born Edith Newbold Jones on January 24th, 1862 in New York, to George Frederic Jones and Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander. She had two older brothers named Frederic and Henry. Her father's family is said to be the family being referred to in the phrase, "keeping up with the Joneses." As a wealthy family they traveled through Europe during the Civil War. At the age of 10 Edith contracted typhoid fever in the Black Forest. She was educated by tutors and was forbidden to read novels until she was married. At 16 her first poems were published.
Interesting Edith Wharton Facts:
When Edith was only 15 she wrote a novella titled Fast and Loose but kept it a secret.
In 1882 Edith became engaged to a man she had dated for two years but the engagement ended right before the wedding.
In 1885 Edith married Edward Robbins Wharton. She was 23. Edward was from a good family and was of the same social class as Edith, but he was 12 years older than she was.
Edith was 29 when her first short story Mrs. Mansley's View was published. She had already had success with some of her poetry.
Many of Edith Wharton's early stories were published in The Greater Inclination, a collection of her work, in 1899.
In 1902 Edith Wharton's novel The Valley of Decision was published. She followed with The House of Mirth in 1905. The House of Mirth made her popular and established her place as a leading writer of the time.
In 1913 Edith Wharton and her husband divorced. He had suffered for a long time from mental illness.
Edith Wharton continued to write for many years. She published several novels including The Reef (1912), The Custom of the Country (1913), Summer (1917), and in 1920 she won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Age of Innocence.
Ethan Frome is one of the most popular novels written by Edith Wharton. It shows the hard life of living on a New England farm at the time.
In addition to her novels Edith Wharton wrote more than 84 short stories. She also wrote books on travel.
Edith Wharton was also a designer and she wrote the book The Decoration of Houses in 1897.
Edith Wharton was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for literature. She was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Yale, and a full membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
In 40 years of writing she wrote more than 40 books including non-fiction titles on the subjects of architecture, gardens, travel, and interior design.
Edith Wharton's first novel Fast and Loose, which she wrote as a teenager, was published in 1938, the year after she died.
Edith Wharton died on August 11th, 1937, at the age of 75, in France at her house on Rue de Montmorency. The street is now called rue Edith Wharton..


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