Edith Wharton is born
On this day in 1862 Edith Wharton is born to an old and wealthy New York family.She grew up in an opulent world where pre-Civil War society tried to keep the nouveau riche at bay.Wharton expected to become a typical wife mother and hostess instead showed intellectual talent and began to write at an early age.
She had begun to fear spinsterhood but then at age 23 married prominent socialite Edward Wharton-who had neither a profession nor fortune.The match was unhappy and troubled but the couple did not divorce until 1913.Wharton returned to writing often dealing with themes of divorce unhappy marriages and free-spirited individuals trapped by societal pressures.Whartons 1905 novel The House of Mirth told the story of a New York socialite with a strong sense of individuality who cannot adapt to the roles expected of her.
The book became a bestseller.Wharton traveled abroad frequently and after her divorce began writing for womens magazines.Her novella Ethan Frome detailing a New England farmer trapped by the demands of the women in his life is still one of her best-known works.Her 1920 novel Age of Innocence won the Pulitzer.
Wharton published numerous other books but some of her later work suffered from the deadlines and pressures imposed by writing for money.She remained in France during World War I assisting refugees and was made a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor in 1916.She published another bestseller Twilight Sleep in 1927 and her autobiography A Backward Glance in 1934.
She died in France in 1937.
