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Born Edith Newbold Jones, to a wealthy New York family, Edith combined her insights into the privileged classes with her natural wit to write novels and short fiction which are notable for their humor and incisiveness.
In 1885, aged 23, she married Edward (Teddy) Robbins Wharton, who was twelve years her senior. They were divorced in 1913. For several years at the end of her tumultous, unhappy marriage, she had an affair with William Morton Fullerton (1865-1952), an American-born bisexual man-about-town who worked as a journalist for the Times and juggled romances with Lord Ronald Gower , the Ranee of Sarawak , and Camille Chabbert , aka Ixo, an opera singer who was reported to be a mistress of the King of Portugal.
Between 1900 and 1938, Wharton wrote many novels, starting in 1905 with the publication of the The House of Mirth, a story that attacked the aristocratic society of which she was a most prominent member. An admirer of European culture and architecture, Edith Wharton crossed the Atlantic 66 times during her life.
She was living on the very fashionable rue de Varenne in Paris, France when World War I began, and, using her many high level connections within the French government, she was allowed to travel extensively by motorcar to the front lines. In Paris, she worked for the Red Cross and with refugees, for which she was awarded the French Légion d'honneur (Legion of Honor). Following the War, she returned to the United States only one more time in her life.
Although most were poor and not part of her refined world, she was fascinated and encouraged by the gathering of the artistic community in Montmartre and Montparnasse at the turn of the century.
Her best known work, The Age of InnocenceThe Age of Innocence is a 1920 novel by Edith Wharton. It won a Pulitzer Prize. A 1993 movie adaptation was directed by Martin Scorsese and starred Winona Ryder, Michelle Pfeiffer, Daniel Day-Lewis, Richard E. Grant and Miriam Margolyes. External link ., won her a Pulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a United States literary award given out each April. Recipients of the award are chosen by an independent board and officially administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in the United States. The prize was and was written in 1920. She spoke flawless French and many of her books were published in both French and English.
Wharton was friend and confidant of many gifted intellectuals of her time: Theodore RooseveltTheodore Roosevelt Order 26th President Term of Office September 14, 1901 March 4, 1909 Predecessor William McKinley Successor William Howard Taft Date of Birth Wednesday, October 27, 1858 Place of Birth New York City Date of Death Monday, January 6, 1919, F Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest HemingwayErnest Miller Hemingway ( July 21, 1899 July 2, 1961) was an American author. He was born in Oak Park, Illinois, and committed suicide in Ketchum, Idaho. Hemingway was one of the 20th century's most important and influential writers, and many details of h were all guests of hers at one time or another. She was also good friends with Henry JamesHenry James ( April 15 1843 February 28, 1916), younger brother of the philosopher and psychologist William James, was a British-American author of the late 19th and early 20th century, best known for novels and novellas based upon themes of morality. and Jean CocteauJean Maurice Eugene Clement Cocteau ( July 5, 1889 October 11, 1963) was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, and filmmaker. He was born at Maisons-Laffitte, France, a small town near Paris. His versatility, unconventionality, and enormous output.
Wharton continued writing until her death on August 11, 1937, in St.-Brice-sous-Forêt , Val-d'Oise, Île-de-France, France. She is buried in the Cimetiere des Gonards, Versailles, France.