Edith Wharton (1872-1937) was born in New York to an upper class family. Her marriage to Edward Wharton was an unhappy one that ended in divorce in1913. She enjoyed mainstream success as a writer, publishing The House of Mirth in 1902, Ethan Frome in 1911, and became the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1920 for her novel The Age of Innocence. She produced no less than 14 novels and novellas, 85 short stories and other poetry and non-fiction work during the course of her life. She also wrote supernatural stories, which are as elegant and class-obsessed as her novels.