----- Original Message ----- From: "Joan Bixby" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, August 01, 2005 1:03 AM Subject: [Jones] FREE BOOK OFFER. > My local library has discarded the following book ; > > EDITH WHARTON, A Biography, by R.W.B. Lewis. copyright 1975 > > I copied the following information from the internet. > > Edith parents, George Frederic and Lucretia Jones, were descendants of > English and Dutch colonists who had made fortunes in shipping, banking, > and real estate. Edith Jones belonged to the small, most fashionable > society of New York which lived on inherited wealth and were > interrelated. After a six-year sojourn of traveling and living in Europe > with her family, she returned at age ten to live on Twenty-third Street, > near Fifth Avenue, in Manhattan. She did not go to school, but educated > herself by reading in her father's "gentleman's library," and was given > lessons by a governess. In 1885, when she was twenty-three, she married > Edward ("Teddy") Robbins Wharton. > Edith Wharton was in an ideal position to view the social ambitions of > the newly rich of the Gilded Age (the post-Civil War period of American > expansion in business, foreign affairs, and the arts). Her world of old > money looked down on the newcomers and their ostentatious display of > wealth. Wharton was both a participant of fashionable society and an > observer of its kaleidoscopic changes in New York, in Newport (where she > had summered in her childhood and had her own house after her marriage) > and later in Lenox, Massachusetts, where she built her own country > house, The Mount, in 1902. > Edith Wharton herself was not content to be merely a society matron and > hostess. From childhood, she showed that she was exceptionally bright > and creative: even before she could read, she made up stories, and as an > adolescent, wrote poetry and fiction, a novella titled Fast and Loose, > precocious for a writer of fifteen. As an adult she found writing > difficult and did not publish her first book of fiction until she was > thirty-six. The conflict she felt between the accepted role of a society > matron and that of a professional writer caused her much anxiety, no > doubt contributed to the depression for which she was treated in the > 1890s. A tonic for her depression was her yearly escape to France and > Italy which inspired her to write about art, architecture, and gardens. > Wharton eventually settled permanently in France--first in Paris, in the > historic Faubourg Saint-Germain, where she had begun spending winters in > 1907--and later in its outskirts. She divorced Teddy Wharton in 1913. In > Paris she found intellectual companionship in circles where artists and > writers mingled with the rich and well-born, and where women played a > major role. > During World War I she became fiercely dedicated to the Allied cause. > She led the committee to aid refugees from northeastern France and > Belgium, and created hostels and schools for them. She helped establish > workrooms to employ women who had no means of support and raised funds > for these projects. Traveling to the front lines to observe the > fighting, Wharton wrote reports for publication in America and urged the > United States to join the war effort. > Edith Newbold Jones was born January 24, 1862. > If you have an interest in this book, please e-mail me OFF the list. > > Joan > > > ==== JONES Mailing List ==== > Direct your questions, comments or problems to the listowner at [email protected] > For detailed instructions on subscribing and unsubscribing visit this site: > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/surname/j/jones.html > browse the archives: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/jones > search the archives: http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?list=JONES > Unusual JONES given names, http://members.aol.com/stjones/jones/oddnames.html >