Edith Wharton was born during the Civil War in New York City in 1982. Her father, George Jones, then moved their family to Europe for six years because he loved to travel. His passion for traveling moved onto Edith. She returned to Manhattan at the age of 10. She became one of the greatest American writers who captivated her audience through her skillful expressions, use of imagery, and interests that inspired her works. She published over 40 books and wrote over 84 short stories during her career where her stories were written about the American experience and interests such as: traveling, art, gardening, and interior decoration. Some of her famous works are The Age of Innocence (1920), Ethan Frome (1911), and The House of Mirth (1905), The Buccaneers (1938), etc.
Wharton grew up in an aristocratic family of New York society where they wanted her to uphold the aristocratic norms and values characterized with wealth, social standing, connections and family bloodlines, and power. Her family had an expression “keeping up with the Joneses” that was created by two of her great aunts. Being accepted by her family had troubled her because she felt like she was the least good-looking. Her brothers teased her because of her hair and big hands and feet. Her mother, Lucretia Rhinelander Stevens, did not give Wharton the approval and love she had gone after, and their relationship together was rarely ever close. Her mother was very disapproving that led her mother characters in her novels to be nothin but “… inadequate, rigid, demanding, financially feckless, socially aspiring mothers. But Edith wrote with such satirical compassion about how women are trapped by their upbringing, inherited her mother’s quelling mannerism” (Edith Wharton: A Magnificent and Subtle Writer). Her mother forbid her to read novels until the day she gets married, but broke her wishes when she had written her first novel, The Valley of Decision (1902) by the age of 15.
On the other hand, Wharton and her father’s relationship stayed strong as he gave her great affection. She had felt protected and safe under his care. She didn’t attend public schools or universities since her father chose to educate her privately at home by hiring helpful tutors. Because her father had an extensive library, she dug herself into all the history, philosophy, poetry, and works of Goethe (Edith Wharton, A Writing Life: Childhood).
Edith Wharton’s love life was scattered all over the place as men kept disappearing from her life. In 1882, she was engaged to Henry Leyden Stevens for short amount of time. Their relationship had ended because of her quality of being greater than him which was shameful to the family. Her mother felt that her knowledge would leave her unmarried, so she tried to discourage her writing. After Stevens, she met Walter van Rensselear Barry who had disappeared out of nowhere. Soon after, the proposal of Edward Robbins (Teddy) Wharton had sparked their newfound love with each other. Even though he was 13 years older than her, his humor and youthfulness seemed to catch her attention. The fact that they both loved animals and outdoor life such as traveling made them suited for each other. Eventually Wharton suffered from depression and anxiety because her husband was unable to match her creative and intellect spirit. To steer away from the tension on their relationship, she started working on one of her books, The Decoration of Houses (1897), that was based on her interest of interior decorations.
Soon the couple moved to Paris where Eden’s spirit had flourished while Teddy’s didn’t which created more tension between their relationship. Morton Fullerton soon came into the picture as they met at a salon. They met secretly and took walks in the Tuileries and sometimes traveled out of town together. Their relationship abruptly ended when he disappeared from her life, and no one knew about their affair until it had popped up in Yale University’s Beinecke Library. Edith and Teddy ended up getting a divorce when Teddy’s depressive condition was shown as incurable (Edith Wharton: The Writer’s Life in Paris).
When living in Paris when World War I began, she worked for Red Cross and helped refugees by establishing workrooms that paid 1 franc per day, creating homes for tuberculosis sufferers, and schools for children. She had received the french Legion of Honor for the work she has done during the war. She worked with John Galsworthy, Thomas Hardy, W.B Yeats, and Job Singer Sargent to get the United States to enter the war.
Her family and lifestyle had influenced and shaped her style of writing. In The Age of Innocence (1993), her writing style entails her imagery of the scenery, landscape, interior, and the way people dressed in the book. When reading the first chapter, she gives the reader a social world with wealthy people. Her writing is very witty and funny where the readers won’t get bored of her work. While reading an excerpt from The Age of Innocence (1993), it seems as her story is written in first point of view but is actually written in third. The way she writes can show that the narrator isn’t trying to be boring but instead more compassionate. The setting take place in the high society of New York city. This relates back to Edith’s personal life because she had lived a wealthy life living in New York. She tackled the mind of the upper class elite by expressing American progressive ideals.
Her passion for writing is very influential especially for a woman during her time. Edith Wharton is the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for literature and got awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Yale. Although her romantic relationships did not work out, she found her affair with Morton Fullerton to impact her life in a way where she wanted every woman to feel the happiness she had when she was with him. She was a strong woman who continued to write even after her mother felt she shouldn’t. Edith was very observant of society and human conditions.