|
|
Article: The Letters of Edith Wharton.
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- September 16, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1988 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
The Letters of Edith Wharton
ASIDE FROM one letter written when she was 12, no correspondence of Edith Wharton (1862-1937) survives before that to her publishers twenty years later. Her first surviving private letters date from six years later still, when she was 38. Yet in spite of this slow beginning, about four thousand of her letters (not counting business correspondence) are extant. Edith Wharton's letters, like other aspects of her life, show a striking rise in tempo and vivacity as she reached her forties--a pace that then continued for twenty years.
Her career followed the same pattern. She published her first story at age 28 and soon began ...