Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton was born in New York in 1862 into a wealthy family of old society, the Joneses; educated by governesses and tutors, she was not allowed to read new novels. Her first published book deals with the decoration of houses. Married at twenty-three to Teddy Wharton, she lived in Paris from 1907 and divorced in 1913. A friend of Henry James, she organised relief for refugees during the war and received the Legion of Honour. She wrote in bed, letting the sheets fall on the floor. Nominated three times for the Nobel Prize, she died near Paris in 1937.

In the catalogue 1

• NovelThe Age of InnocenceEdith Wharton · 1920Literature