Crucial Instances

Edith Wharton was born on January 24, 1862 in New York City. Due to a strained marriage she began to write fiction and published her first story in 1889. Her first published book was a guide to interior decorating, but this was followed by several novels and story collections. In 1913 the Whartons were divorced, and Edith took up permanent residence in France. Her novels The House of Mirth (1905) and Ethan Frome (1911) were bestsellers. Her great satiric novel, The Custom of the Country was published in 1913. Her novel The Age of Innocence won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1921. In her later years, she enjoyed the admiration of a new generation of writers, including Sinclair Lewis and F. Scott Fitzgerald. She wrote over 30 books, including an autobiography, A Backward Glance (1934). She died in Paris on August 11, 1937.