Edith Wharton

Born in 1862 into the wealthy New York family that inspired the term 'Keeping up with the Joneses', Edith's novels were characterised by their wit, insight and lack of action. An admirer of European culture, Edith crossed the Atlantic more than 60 times and spoke fluent French. A contemporary and friend of Henry James, Ernest Hemingway and Theodore Roosevelt, Wharton moved in powerful circles and made her permanent home in France in 1907 where she was very involved in the war effort during the First World War. She continued to write until her death in 1937. Her final novel, 'The Buccaneers' was unfinished, but writer Marion Mainwaring completed it from her extensive notes. "Life is always a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope." - Edith Wharton