Who Was Edith Wharton In The Gilded Age?

Edith Wharton entered early adulthood as an awkward young woman in the Gilded Age of New York City it was a time that limited her options and harshly judged her for trying to be a woman who wanted more from Life her life was marked by unhappy relationships including her unrequited Lifelong Love for a confirmed Bachelor her unhappy marriage to a man who would later fall prey to mental illness and her extramarital affair with an openly bisexual and promiscuous American journalist stay to the end to find out about Edith's secret life that is not well known to know Edith Wharton all you have to do is read her many books in the house of Mirth her first of many best sellers which was published in 1905 the main character Lily Bart is said to be the embodiment of Edith's experience of the constraints that Society of the Gilded Age placed upon her and all the women of that era there is a scene in the book where Lily reflects on her dreaded fate of marriage with a rich man who will do her the honor of boring her for life that is what happened to Edith Wharton and so much more the tragic unhappiness which overshadowed Edith Wharton's entire life begins in childhood with a controlling mother who was emotionally unavailable and who sought to stifle her daughter's active imagination and a father who she adored and who died all too soon in her own family she was always an outsider even as she desperately wanted to fit in she yearned to satisfy her mother and to some extent to be accepted by the society into which she had been born Edith Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones on January 24th 1862 to George Frederick Jones and Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander both from wealthy old money families in 18th century New York in fact the expression keeping up with the Joneses is said to have originated with reference to two of her great aunts from Old New York Edith's ancestry was a long succession of important names the scammer horns the Joneses pendletons Stevens's rhinelanders and gallatins who had led the social life of New York long before Mrs Astor's reign of the Gilded Age even as her family held high positions in American society money often was tight still her father although not overly Rich was able to provide as she once wrote a life of leisure and amiable hospitality George Jones was a sensitive man with a taste for art history classical architecture and travel she describes him as tall and handsome and when in his presence she felt safe and protected at the conclusion of the Civil War in 1866 the Jones is embarked on a journey around Europe during which Edith was schooled by servants and house tutors during her travels as a child she studied the languages of the countries the family visited such as German Italian and French she was called Jones or Miss as a child and had two brothers that were much older than her creating a lonely life while developing both her gift for languages and her own deep appreciation for beauty in art architecture and literature when she was 10 years old the family returned to the U.S and settled in New York City where they spent their Winters in New York and their summers in Newport Rhode Island and where Edith was indoctrinated into the standards of Womanhood of her era she was brought up to see marriage as her only means of survival and happiness her education turned to learning how to charm and do nothing more but nothing more was not an Edith's nature she read voraciously from her father's Library her mother forbade her to read novels and on her own and much denounced by her mother and later Society she began to follow her passion to write at age 16 she privately published her first volume of poems and when she escaped the confines of her mother's strict upbringing she went on to write 40 books in 40 years including her own novels along with innumerable short stories and essays covering topics such as architecture Gardens interior design travel and of course the Dire Straits of Womanhood in the later 1800s and early 1900s America's Upper Crust at age 17 a shy young red-headed Edith Jones came out into society while inwardly rejecting the standards of fashion and etiquette that were expected of young girls at the time and all with the intention of marrying well she hated the thought of being put on display at balls and parties and the required attendance at the many dances and parties in Newport and New York throughout the season ironically Edith never had to attend her own coming out ball her stayed and conservative mother thought that an informal coming out party more suited the occasion plus it spared the exorbitant expense that the family couldn't really afford at the party Edith shrunk back from the invitations to dance from her older brother's friends and coward beside her mother in speechless misery she wrote to me the evening was a long cold Agony of shyness throughout her life Edith would be characterized by those around her as cool and unapproachable but in truth it was this extreme shyness that marked her demeanor three years later in March of 1882 Edith's childhood security ended with the death of her father whom she felt was the only person who could ever and would ever see her and be supportive of her creative nature in the summer of 1881 the year of her father's illness leading to his death the 18 year old Edith was courted by Henry Lyden Stevens three years her senior who was from a new money family his late father perin Stevens had been a co-owner of the fifth avenue hotel opposite the Jones's New York home his mother the daughter of a grocer from Lowell Massachusetts was a social climber whom Edith's mother did not approve of Henry and Edith seemed to hit it off well enough and soon Henry proposed marriage but the marriage did not happen and speculations range as to why some say Henry's mother considered Edith Jones an insufficient catch or that she felt snubbed by the Joneses another account says Henry did not approve of Edith's Ambitions to be a published author so she chose to break off the engagement in 1883 Edith met Walter Van Rensselaer Berry she was 21 and he was 27 and it was in Berry that she discovered the connection she had longed for to replace her father in the role of a husband but Walter Berry turned out to be a sworn Bachelor who would never settle down years later after his death Edith called Walter the great Love of All my life and remarked that he was the only man aside from her father who really understood her and her passion to write and live life independently of its constraints Barry was soon to become a lawyer with an established career in international law and diplomacy after serving as a judge at the international tribunal of Egypt from 1908 to 1911. he settled in Paris for the remainder of his life Barry would move in and out of Edith's life offering her support and advice regarding her writing and Publishing he also connected with her again after the start of World War One in 1914 the two became involved in a campaign for France where they tirelessly promoted its cause in the United States she and Barry now president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris were among the few foreigners in France allowed to travel to the front lines during World War One they made five Journeys between February and August 1915 traveling by car Edith and Walter drove through the war zone viewing one decimated French Village after another Edith described this war effort in a series of articles that were first published in scribner's magazine and later as a compilation in the book fighting France from Dunkirk to Belfort which became an American bestseller Walter Berry died in 1927 in Edith upon her death was buried by his side in France approaching the age of 23 Edith felt the pressures of society to Mary as was her Duty plus she wanted desperately to get out of the home and get away from her mother as Walter Berry was no longer an option she turned to a friend of her older brother a man 12 years her senior and of the same social class Edward Robbins Wharton who went by the name of Teddy was from a well-established Boston family good looking and had a liking for small dogs as did Edith in addition he shared her love of travel on April 29 1885 they were married at the Trinity Chapel complex in Manhattan the New York Times labeled it a quiet Affair in which the bride had no bridesmaids in attendance Teddy was 12 years her senior at the age of 33 he was still living with his mother and was amiable respected and unassertive he like many other men in his class had no actual employment and relied on a trust fund to get by he was a physical man who spent his time on sports fishing and horseback riding without interest at all in the Arts it's difficult to imagine a less suited match for Edith Jones Edith was completely unprepared for the sexual nature of marriage with her mother offering no support whatsoever it was a marriage in which there was no sex at all for many weeks after the wedding and then eventually settled into a state of celibacy between 1886 and 1897 they traveled in Edith set aside her writing but a life without writing physical intimacy or intellectual friendship put her into a state of poor health she began to suffer from eating disorders headaches claustrophobia and asthma she'd also started to have an identity problem with her creative self at odds with the self locked in a frivolous society and an unsatisfying marriage this lasted for a number of years in which she recalls it as a time being marked by intense feeling of sickness and such an utterable exhaustion over time Edith began to draw herself out of it and started writing again success came quickly and with the money earned she designed and moved into her first real home an estate in the Berkshires of Massachusetts that she named the mount here she developed her own circle of intellectual and artistic friends leaving Teddy to his own pastimes of sports and frivolous activities that she no longer pretended to be interested in just when things were improving for Edith tragedy started to seep into the marriage in other ways than just a marriage without intimacy about this time Teddy began to show more and more signs of mental instability he increasingly displayed signs of acute depression interrupted by periods of mania seemingly having what we would call today manic depressive Teddy also began to have affairs and when Teddy had difficulty meeting the expenses of his many Mistresses he helped himself to Edith's money without her consent still Edith sought to find him effective psychiatric treatment but the marriage was more and more seeming like a prison much as her debutante years under her mother's rule had become after a few more years of painful consideration Edith divorced her husband of 28 years in 1913. in the same year as her divorce Edith Wharton began an affair with Morton Fullerton an author and foreign correspondent for the times of London in whom she found at first an intellectual partner and then her lover but happiness was once again to elude Edith Fullerton was a fervent bisexual who had a sociopathic inability to love a lack of effect and a need for power though the affair was short-lived Wharton's surviving letters to Fullerton reveal the passionate infatuation she felt for him though it is unclear how he actually felt about her it has been suggested by author Keith Stern that Edith Wharton was a lesbian at least for a Time in his book queers in history the comprehensive Encyclopedia of historical gays lesbians and bisexuals Stern says that Edith had a lesbian affair with writer Janet flanner Janet flanner was an American writer and journalist who served as the Paris correspondent of the New Yorker Magazine from 1925 until she retired in 1975. not having read the book I am not sure of the basis for this claim but it is very likely Edith was in Paris mixing with intellectuals many of whom were gay her lover Fullerton was bisexual so she could not have been ignorant of homosexuality she was friends with British writer Violet Paget an out lesbian as well as friends with Teddy Roosevelt's younger sister Corrine Roosevelt Robinson who is said to have been bisexual let me know what you think in the comments How likely was it that Edith Wharton was gay well that sums it up other than to say that Edith Wharton died of a stroke on August 11 1937 in her home in Paris With a Friend by her side thanks for watching and don't forget to subscribe for more videos on the many fabulous fears and feisty women in history

Channel: Fabulous, Fierce & Feisty Women In History

Views: 70,148

Keywords: Edith Wharton, the gilded age, America's gilded age, gilded age, the gilded age hbo, HBO gilded age, gilded age history, the gilded age in new york, what is the gilded age, gilded age new york city, gilded age new york, gilded age socialites, American novelist, Walter Van Rensselaer Berry, Edward Robbins Wharton, Teddy Wharton, Morton Fullerton, Queers in History, Janet Flanner, Violet Paget, Corinne Roosevelt, lesbians in history, lesbian, performing arts

Id: YIB-dcfDCF0

Length: 16min 6sec (966 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 03 2022