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Italian Villas reproduction
I am writing because I have been trying without success to locate a reproduction of Italian Villas and their Gardens by (what I assume might be) your favorite author. If you can offer me any advice on how to locate the most recent reproduction (the textile on the cover has multicolored flowers as a distinction from the prior edition), then that would be most appreciated!
I thank you in advance for any consideration you might have on this elusive book.
Sincerely,
Jonina Turzi
7/23/08
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Wharton in Newport photos
I also have a query. As a native Rhode Islander (born in Newport, mother from Middletown, dad from Newport) who visits there every year, I'm especially fascinated by the references in The Age of Innocence to those towns and locations there. Does anyone know of a source of photos of, or any textual references outside the fictions to sites Wharton frequented? My grandmother was more or less her contemporary, although not in the same social realm. Pictures of my grandmother and her sisters and friends on Ocean Drive and farm pictures from Middletown and Portsmouth make me eager to find out more about Wharton's times there.
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Jane L. Hyde
Asheville
janeluther@gmail.com
7/23/08 |
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EW Letter about the death of a friend's dog
I am looking for a letter written by Edith Wharton to a friend about
the death of the friend's dog.
Does anyone know of the letter and where it might be found
thank you
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Manuscript of The Buccaneers
I'm trying to locate the whereabouts of the original manuscript of 'The Buccaneers'.
Does anyone have any information?
Thanks!
Sara
Sara Louise Petersen I [juniormints3@yahoo.com]
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Edith Wharton's handwritten manuscript for The Buccaneers (along with the outline, handwritten notes, and the corrected typescript) are in Box 3 of the Edith Wharton Collection at Yale's Beinecke library.
Dan Hefko
Midlothian, VA
7/23/08
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| French Ways and Their Meaning: Copyright?
I am a graduate assistant researching Edith Wharton and her collection of articles found in French Ways & Their Meaning. In my edition from 1919, it states that D. Appleton and Co. along with International Magazine Co. own the copyrights to this book. Why did Ms. Wharton not own the rights to this collection? And do they still belong to Appleton and Intl' Mag. Co.? I am writing a term paper due at the beginning of next week, as I would appreciate any information you might have as soon as possible.
Respectfully,
Natalie Richardson
5/27/08 |
In all of the first editions of Wharton's work that I've come across, the manuscript was copyrighted by the publisher rather than the author. It seems to have been the practice of the time.
The Watkins/Loomis Agencey currently holds the copyright to French Ways and Their Meaning. Contact information is available at <http://www.watkinsloomis.com/>.
Dan Hefko
Midlothian, VA
7/23/08 |
Location of the Benedick: Wharton's Mistake?
In the opening scene of The House of Mirth, Lily Bart and Mr. Selden meet at Grand Central Station, where she has two hours until her train. They walk outside, "north on Madison Avenue", and almost immediately find themselves in the street where his apartment building, The Benedick, is located. They don't take a cab (even though he suggested he would find one).
The Benedick, a famous building, is located at 80 Washington Park East, which is more than a mile south of the train station, in the Greenwich Village area. In fact, when Lily leaves Mr. Selden at the Benedick, she takes a cab, and has time for plenty of ruminating while she rides back to the station.
How could Wharton have made such a mistake? Are we to think Lily Bart and Selden walked a mile in the city before arriving at his apartment?
5/26/08 |
In the space between the period at the end of one sentence and the capital at the beginning of the next, Lily and Selden travel anywhere from half a block to an entire block depending upon where they emerge from Grand Central Station. Given that they cover this much distance in the white space between sentences, it is not unreasonable to imagine they could have walked a mile or two in the twenty-one lines (in the 1905 edition) between their departure from the station and Lily's pausing on the street where Selden lives.
Wharton acknowledged in The Writing of Fiction that one of the "central difficulties of the novel" was "the attempt to produce on the reader the effect of the passage of time." It could be argued that the brisk pace set by Lily and Selden as they exit the station, coupled with the description of Lily's "long light step," are enough evidence to make the distance they cover plausible.
The fact that they "began to stroll northward" and ended up at a southerly destination, could simply suggest the unpremeditated nature of their walk or could point to a sense of misdirection on Wharton's part. In A Backward Glance she seems to acknowledge a poor sense of direction in some instances, which she attributes to an over reliance on her driver in getting from one place to another.
Dan Hefko
Midlothian, VA
7/23/08 |
Wharton's Homes
Hello, I've been searching for photos of the interiors of Edith's homes in Paris. 53 Rue de Varenne where she leased from George Vanderbilt and 58 Rue de Varenne. Do you know if any exist and where I might find them? Thank you, Shelley Harris
5/23/08
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The Lilly Library's Edith Wharton collection at Indiana University has a box devoted to Wharton's photographs: <http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/lilly/mss/subfile/whartoninv.html>.
While the website doesn't include a list of the photos, Eleanor Dwight's illustrated biography includes a picture from the courtyard of 53 Rue de Varenne, which she credits to the Lilly Library. Perhaps their collection includes other interior photographs.
--Dan Hefko, 7/23/08 |
