Edith Wharton – Biography of Edith Wharton

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Edith newbold jones, later known as Edith wharton, by her married name, was born in New York, on January 24, 1862. The important American writer, won the pulitzer prize for his novel “The Age of Innocence“translated all over the world and still studied in schools not only in the United States.

Edith he belonged to an old “Big Apple” family, the Newbold-Jones, very wealthy and socially active among notable New Yorkers. However, in 1866, when the little Edith He was only four years old, due to some questionable investments the family had to move to Europe. There, the future writer learned French, Italian and German, studied privately, without attending public schools, and spent her days reading, taking an interest in art and literature, soon proving herself an introspective girl with very special interests.

At the age of fourteen, under the pseudonym David Oliveri, he wrote his first novel. In those same years, he composed poems and, in particular, a collection published by the magazine “Atlantic MonthlyAfter some time, her teacher, Emelyn Washburn, introduced her to the readings of the authors Emerson and Thoreau, from whom she learned much.

In 1885, after breaking an engagement with young Harry Stevens, the young and nonconformist Edith, reluctantly married, the well-known Boston banker, Edward Wharton, a friend of her brother and twelve years her senior.

Five years later the author begins to collaborate with the “Scribner Magazine“In those years, the husband of Edith He began to reveal certain mental problems and an unstable character, which led him, among other things, to have a variety of sexual relationships with young women, often prostitutes. The relationship between the couple soon fell apart and since 1906 Wharton she decided to move permanently to France, abandoning her husband.

Between 1906 and 1909, according to the many letters later compiled in a famous collection published posthumously, Edith wharton he frequented the journalist Morton Fullerton, according to many the true and only love of his life. Meanwhile, his literary career seemed about to take off.

Since 1902 his first novel, “The Valley of Decision“, set in Italy in the 18th century. This was followed by a series of publications, including short stories and articles, often published in the best European and American newspapers.

In 1911 he published “Ethan frome“, according to many his most successful, short and convincing work, halfway between a long story and a short novel. In those years, Edith He added another of his great passions to writing: traveling. She was the first woman in history to reach the top of Mount Athos, a place closed to women, and that she described in many of her writings. She often traveled to different parts of Europe, even reaching Morocco, visiting a harem, another limited experience for a woman in those years. He went back and forth between Europe and America, crossing the Atlantic about sixty times during his life.

Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, he opened hostels and literary circles in which he welcomed not only American authors. Her two French houses, one in Paris and the other in the south of France, became a receptacle for authors and journalists, people of culture in general, helping to spread the fame of the American writer.

Meanwhile, in 1913 she formally divorced the Wharton banker, although she kept the name received at the time of the wedding.
When, in 1914, Germany finally declared war on France, Edith wharton pledged to create real centers for unemployed and unassisted women workers. After taking refuge in England, he returned to France after the famous Battle of the Marne, in September 1914, creating the “America’s Shelters for Refugees“, an evolution of the literary circles that she had created at her home in Paris. There she met authors like Henry James, with whom she became a close friend, obtaining great demonstrations of esteem also for their literary work. Through this initiative, in 1916 , Wharton He received the Legion of Honor from the French government.

During World War I the New York writer also wrote for American newspapers, providing reports on the war and political circumstances. But not only. He also worked on humanitarian initiatives, for example helping a Belgian orphanage to rescue more than 600 refugee children, in danger from the German advance. He also engaged in many fundraisers. He continued to write novels and short stories, such as “The Marne“(1918), setting the stage for what would soon be his masterpiece, which would come to the end of the war.

In 1920 he published “The Age of Innocence“, a work set in the high society of New York at the beginning of the 20th century, where all the sarcasm and criticism towards this type of society is evident, precisely by an author who, for years, had frequented its most prominent characters.

A year later, in 1921, the novel won the pulitzer prize. Edith wharton was the first woman to receive the prestigious award instituted by {@bio: Joseph Pulitzer]. At the peak of his career, he also wrote four short novels grouped into “Old new york“dated 1924, which included the works”Fake“,”The spinster“,”Moon reflections” Y “New Year’s Day. “
Between the 20s and the 30s he wrote other novels, but none achieved the fame of the previous one “The Age of Innocence“. Remarkable.”A son in the front“, from 1923,”Here and there“, 1926,”Children“in 1928 and”Here come the gods“from 1931.

In 1937 he published “Ghosts“, an important collection of ghost stories; in this same year, after leaving his last novel unfinished”Buccaneers“, Edith wharton died in the French town of Saint-Brice-sous-Foret, exactly on August 11, 1937.