Edith WhartonEdith Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones on January 24, 1862, at 14 West 23rd St. into a prosperous New York family. The only daughter and third child of George Frederic and Lucretia Rhinelander Jones, Edith spent a large portion of her early yearsin Europe, primarily in France, Germany, and Italy, where she honed her language skills and deepened her appreciation for the beauty of literature, art, and architecture. Although Wharton had a collection of her own poems privately printed when she was 16, she did not start writing seriously until after several years of marriage. The Valley of Decision, Wharton's debut book, was released in 1902. A novel of manners published in 1905, The House of Mirth, examined the stratified society in which the author was raised and its response to societal upheaval. She received a lot of positive reviews and attention for the book. She also became the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. At age 75, she died at Pavillon Colombe on August 11, 1937. In Versailles' Cimetière des Gonards, she is buried next to her close friend Walter Berry. Read More Read Less