American Author Edith Wharton Biography

American Novelist and Short-Story Writer Famous for Ethan Frome

Mar 2, 2008
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Edith Wharton, Novelist and Short Story Writer - nndb

Biography of Edith Wharton, one of America's master novelists, known for Ethan Frome, The House of Mirth, and 1921 Pulitzer Prize winning The Age of Innocence.

Edith Wharton was an American novelist and short story writer famous for fiction books The House of Mirth, The Age of Innocence, and Ethan Frome. All three novels were made into films.

Wharton was one of the first women to receive an honorary degree from Yale University.

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 of Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton (1862-1937), was born Edith Newbold Jones, on January 24, 1862, into New York's aristocratic, rich, upper-class society, the daughter of George Frederic and Lucretia Jones. 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. 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. The couple divorced in 1913 after 28 years of marriage.

Edith Wharton the Novelist

Following a nervous breakdown when she was 32, Wharton was advised that writing might be therapeutic and help her recover. Three years later she published a non-fiction book (co-authored with a friend) for architects and home decorators, The Decoration of Houses, that launched her writing career.

Her first novel, Valley of Decision, was published when she was 40, but The House of Mirth was her first successful novel that established her as a serious author. It is the story of a beautiful but poor young woman trying to survive in New York City. Fifteen year later, The Age of Innocence earned her a Pulitzer Prize in 1921, the first fiction prize to be given to a woman.

Wharton's Involvement in World War I

Wharton became involved in World War I, writing reports for American newspapers and doing relief work by organizing and running war charities. She was one of the first women to receive the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.