Letters of Edith Wharton [Paperback]

R.W.B. Lewis (Editor), Nancy Lewis (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 14, 1989

Here are the intimate letters of Edith Wharton--the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize--detailing her work, her family, her friendship with Henry James, and her passion for the American journalist Morton Fullerton. The letters reveal a remarkable, independent woman who lived life fully. Three 8-page inserts.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Wharton (1874-1937) was not only a prolific novelist and short-story writer but a prolific correspondent, and this selection of close to 400 letters, many never-before published, shows her at her epistolary best. Divided into seven chronological sections, each with a useful introduction, the letters reveal a woman of alert mind, broad interests, numerous moods and appealing warmth of heart. She also was endowed with a singular capacity to evoke the life around her, ranging from the exoticism of North Africa to the horrors of the World War I front. A large proportion of the letters are to her friends Henry James and Bernard Berenson, while others address Scott Fitzgerald, Andre Gide and Theodore Roosevelt's sister. The letters that show her at her most passionate, and most vulnerable, are those she wrote to her lover Morton Fullerton. R.W.B. Lewis won a Pulitzer Prize for his 1975 Wharton biography; Nancy Lewis is his wife. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

If you passed on this collection of 400 letters when it debuted in 1988, this is your chance to make amends. Though LJ's reviewer asserted these mostly impersonal correspondences would be "of greatest use to a social historian" (LJ 6/1/88), Wharton's current celebrity status should draw a larger audience.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; Rep edition (November 14, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0020344007
• ISBN-13: 978-0020344001
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #725,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent selection by a top scholar, August 7, 2001

By 

R. Bartlett "REB" (Boston MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Letters of Edith Wharton (Paperback)

This book contains about 400 of Wharton's letters, out of about 4,000 extant. It is a careful selection, including "major" letters that are often quoted, and for the first time (other than in a small university publication), a substantial portion of her correspondence with Morton Fullerton, with whom she had an affair while in her mid-40s. That particular correspondence did not surface until the 1980s, and added an entirely new perspective on Wharton's life and work. Unfortunately, nearly all of her correspondence with two of her greatest friends, Henry James and Walter Berry, did not survive, and the absence is felt. I applaud the editors (one of whom wrote a Pulitzer prize winning bio of Wharton) for a selection that is very readable and never trite or repetitive (a big problem when dealing with letters in their entirety). Reading the letters after having read the bio, I found they added to my understanding of Wharton as a person and a writer.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wharton's Letters, September 12, 2005

By 

Emily K. Bibby "Duchess of Somerset" (Annapolis, MD.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Letters of Edith Wharton (Hardcover)

Although many of the lines contained in these letters have been well publicized for years, never before have Wharton's private and business correspondences been so collectively accessible. Interesting enough for their biographic aspects, the letters are also wonderful companion pieces to Wharton's books, particularly A BACKWARD GLANCE, THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, and THE HOUSE OF MIRTH.