Literary Achievements
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Literary Achievements
A brief personal history and overview of literary achievements The cultural
advancement of the 1920's has many important literary figures associated with
it. Names such as T.S. Elliot, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald are some
of the better-known names. Edith Wharton is one of the less known of the period,
but is still a formidable writer. This paper will explore Ms. Wharton's life and
history and give a brief background surrounding some of her more popular novels.
Ms. Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones on January 24, 1862, in her parents'
mansion and West Twenty-Third Street in New York City. Her mother, Lucretia
Stevens Rhinelander, connected with wealthy Dutch landowners and merchants of
the early nineteenth century, was the granddaughter of an outstanding American
Revolutionary War patriot, General Ebenezer Stevens. After the war, General
Stevens became a very successful East-India merchant. Edith Wharton's father, a
man of considerable, private, inherited wealth, did not follow a career in
business. Rather, he lived a life of leisure, punctuated by his hobbies of sea
fishing, boat racing, and wildfowl shooting (activities typical of wealthy men
of the day). During her first few years, Edith Wharton's family alternated
between New York City in the winter and Newport, Rhode Island, in the summer. At
the time, Newport was a very fashionable place where New York City families of
wealth might enjoy ocean breezes and participate in a ro! und of tea and inner
parties, the leaving of calling cards, and constant preparations for
entertaining or being entertained. When she was four years old, her parents took
her on a tour of Europe, concentrating on Italy and France. She became as
familiar with Rome and Paris as most children are with their hometowns. It was
here that the small, red-headed child played her favorite game. Not yet able to
read, she carried around with her a large volume of Washington Irving's stories
of old Spain, The Alhambra. Holding the Book carefully, often upside down, she
proceeded to turn the pages and to read aloud "make up" stories as she
went along. Whereas most children of her age would be told the familiar old folk
and fairy tales of Anderson, Perrault, and the Brothers Grimm, she listened with
great delight to tales of the "domestic dramas" of the great Greek and
Roman gods of mythology. The young child rapidly learned to read, speak, and
write German, French, and Italian, as a result of the efforts ...
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