The Age of Innocence

Edith Wharton Born Edith Newbold Jones (1862 – 1937) A Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer and designer. Wharton combined her insider's view of America's privileged classes with a brilliant, natural wit to write humorous, incisive novels of social and psychological insight. She was friend and confidante to many famous figures of her time, including Henry James, Sinclair Lewis, Jean Cocteau, Theodor Roosevelt, and others. The age of Innocence (1920) won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for literature, making Wharton the first woman to win the award. The novel is noted for its accurate portrayal of the East Coast American upper class, and for the social tragedy of the plot.