![]() Wharton wrote and told stories from an early age. Early writing Edith Wharton by Edward Harrison May Her mother forbade her to read novels until she was married, and Edith obeyed this command. ![]() Edith wanted more education than she received, so she read from her father's library and from the libraries of her father's friends. She considered these fashions superficial and oppressive. She rejected the standards of fashion and etiquette that were expected of young girls at the time, which were intended to allow women to marry well and to be put on display at balls and parties. While in Europe, she was educated by tutors and governesses. After the family returned to the United States in 1872, they spent their winters in New York City and their summers in Newport, Rhode Island. ![]() At the age of nine, she suffered from typhoid fever, which nearly killed her, while the family was at a spa in the Black Forest. During her travels, the young Edith became fluent in French, German, and Italian. From 1866 to 1872, the Jones family visited France, Italy, Germany, and Spain. Wharton was born during the Civil War however, in describing her family life Wharton does not mention the war except that their travels to Europe after the war were due to the depreciation of American currency. Fort Stevens in New York was named for Wharton's maternal great-grandfather, Ebenezer Stevens, a Revolutionary War hero and general. Her father's first cousin was Caroline Schermerhorn Astor. She was related to the Rensselaers, the most prestigious of the old patroon families, who had received land grants from the former Dutch government of New York and New Jersey. The saying " keeping up with the Joneses" is said to refer to her father's family. Wharton's paternal family, the Joneses, were a very wealthy and socially prominent family having made their money in real estate. Edith was baptized April 20, 1862, Easter Sunday, at Grace Church. ![]() Frederic married Mary Cadwalader Rawle their daughter was landscape architect Beatrix Farrand. ![]() She had two elder brothers, Frederic Rhinelander and Henry Edward. To her friends and family she was known as "Pussy Jones". Among her other well known works are The House of Mirth, the novella Ethan Frome, and several notable ghost stories.īiography Early life Portrait of Wharton as a girl by Edward Harrison May (1870)Įdith Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones on January 24, 1862, to George Frederic Jones and Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander at their brownstone at 14 West Twenty-third Street in New York City. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1996. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, for her novel The Age of Innocence. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray realistically the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. Mary Cadwalader Rawle Jones (sister-in-law)Įdith Wharton ( / ˈ hw ɔːr t ən/ born Edith Newbold Jones Janu– August 11, 1937) was an American writer and designer. Ebenezer Stevens (maternal great-grandfather) ![]()
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