Edith Wharton – early 20th-century American novelist, author of “The Age of Innocence” and “The House of Mirth”, winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize. Her works probe social conventions, women’s roles, and the hidden tensions of New York’s elite. She spent much of her life in Europe, which also shaped her writing.
📚 Wharton was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. 🏛 Her novels are seen as chronicles of New York’s Gilded Age elite. 🌍 Lived mostly in France, where she aided refugees during WWI. 📖 Friends with Henry James and Gertrude Stein, who shaped her style. 🏡 Wrote “The Decoration of Houses” on interior design. 🎬 Scorsese adapted “The Age of Innocence” in 1993. 🖋 Known for irony and sharp social analysis. 📖 Tackled taboo themes: divorce, infidelity, class barriers. 🌟 Featured on a U.S. postage stamp in 1996. 😮 Odd fact: drafted standing up, dictating to a secretary. 😂 Funny: kept a “pack of terriers” and joked they were her true family.