Happy 150th, Edith Wharton!

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Edith Wharton, the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for literature, was born on January 24, 1862, 150 years ago today.

Born Edith Newbold Jones into a wealthy American family - her family is said to have been the Joneses of "keeping up with the Joneses" fame - she was raised in part in Europe, and published her first stories and poetry even before she made her debut in society.

She went on the write 49 volumes of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Some of her most famous works explore the precarious position of women who defy society's expectations, through characters including Lily Bart in The House of Mirth and Countess Ellen Olenska in The Age of Innocence.

Wharton also designed and built The Mount, a country home in Lenox, Massachusetts, which is now a National Historic Landmark, one of very few dedicated to women.

A number of events to celebrate the sesquicentennial of her birth are planned throughout the spring. - Meg Waite Clayton

I'm the author of The Four Ms. Bradwells (just out in paperback as a Random House Reader's Circle Selection), The Wednesday Sisters, The Language of Light, and the forthcoming The Wednesday Daughters.

MegWaiteClayton 5 pts

>She took on such taboo subjects for the time.

That she did! Jane Austen grazed on this territory occasionally, but it was never her main character and it was almost always a character who was or bordered on ridiculous. Wharton delivers us to an understanding of characters who wander outside society's permitted bounds.

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virtualDavis from Twitter

WandaShapiro That TOTALLY counts! ;-)

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justbooks from Twitter

@MegWClayton: one of our best book club discussions ever was re: Wharton's Age of Innocence. Such resonance! Happy Birthday Edith!

MegWClayton from Twitter

justbooks her books provide GREAT material for discussion, for sure!

Bigjohnnyjet27 from Twitter

MegWClayton I wish I knew enough about writing to hold a conversation with you, but alas, I can only read books not speak about them :(

Let's bake a cake! RT WandaShapiro Happy 150th, Edith Wharton! http://t.co/foXcABI3 First woman to win the pulitzer prize for literature.

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Elizabeth Van Jacob

The House of Mirth is on my To Read list. I enjoyed Roman Fever and Other Stories, especially since some of the characters in the short stories appear later in her novels. I was unaware that she was so prolific; we must have 50-60 different titles by her.