Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2000 5:58 PM
  Subject: Wharton's play version of House of Mirth
 

  I just learned that Edith Wharton wrote a play version of THE HOUSE OF MIRTH after she completed the novel. Can anyone tell me what year she wrote this play and if and where it was ever produced?
 

  Thank you,
 

  Jessica Werner

  jwerner@act-sfbay.org
 

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Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2000 22:54:26 -0800 (PST)

Subject: Re: Wharton's play version of House of Mirth
 

According to Shari Benstock's _No Gifts From Chance_, "In November 1905 .. . she was also collaborating with popular New York playwright Clyde Fitch on a dramatic adaptation of _The House of Mirth_; he created the scenario, and she wrote the dialogue" (152). [. . . ] "In August, she and Clyde Fitch completed their script of _The House of Mirth_, and the play went into rehearsal.  On September 14, they were in Detroit for the opening.[...] But the New York opening at the Savoy Theatre on October 22 fell far short of success" (155). 

Benstock discusses the play and its reception at more length, but this gives some idea of the dates involved. 

Hope this helps.

Donna Campbell
 

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From: "S_shaloo" <S_Shaloo@email.msn.com>
Subject: Re: Wharton's play version of House of Mirth
Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2000 19:20:59 -0500

Clyde Fitch did the play.  I think Wharton got billing as author, but my memory of the correspondence is that she didn't write any of it.  It was produced.  Scribner's printed the dramatic version.  Sorry don't have the date handy.  Will be readily available on any library search.

I can't address Confucianism or the Etruscans (though I think you might have a better shot on the Etruscans, since she loved Italy--she does have 2 texts on Italy you might look at), but I'm fairly sure she has no references to E. Nesbit (with whose work I'm slightly familiar).  In *A Backward Glance* she mentions a number of authors of children's books, but Nesbit is not among them. (To some extent this is not useful; she's remembering books *she* read as a child, so of course Nesbit would not be among them.)  Neither R.W.B. Lewis nor Shari Benstock (major biographies) has any listing for Nesbit, nor does her name (Nesbit's) appear in the volume of *Letters* edited by the Lewises. An interesting speculation--but my guess would be that they never met, and it's entirely possible they were unaware of each other.  Good luck! Julie Olin-Ammentorp 

This is a plea for help.  Some time during the past couple of weeks I saw an item about a bookseller who has been collecting books from Edith Wharton's library and now has a catalogue available.  I foolishly deleted the item.  Any information you can give me would be much appreciated.

Jane Millgate 1/14/00

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Forgive this partial reply to query re:bookseller.  I believe the name of the dealer is George Ramsden.  I am more certain that he is the proprietor of a shop in York, Stone Trough Books.

The INDEPENDENT ran an article perhaps 18 months (or a bit longer) ago on his collection, which was really an article about Hermione Lee, about her access to the collection, and perhaps an interview with her.

My files are in several locations just now, and I can't locate my copy of the Independent article, but you should be able to search and confirm the above information from U of Toronto.

FYI, the bookseller wants to sell the collection as an entire and so is not taking bids on individual books.  I have heard he created a catalogue though I have never seen it.

There is a list of books from EW's library at the Huntington, and it may comprise all or perhaps comprises only the majority part of his collection, since I understood that he has been trying to add to his holdings over time. The list does not represent EW's entire library, which apparently was not properly recorded before being split up after her death (sigh).

Hope this helps.
Sharon Shaloo
1/15/00
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The book can be found on Bibliofind (http://www.bibliofind.com):

Ramsden, George (compiler): : Edith Wharton's Library; a catalogue. Settrington, Stone Trough Books, 1999 With a foreword by Hermione Lee. 25 x. 16.5 cm. xxxiii, 153 pp. Numerous b/w illustrations, 3 in colour. Cloth. In the glassine wrapper. Numbered edition of 350 copies. New. 'A scholarly and very useful  catalogue' Times Lit. Supp. 'This catalogue is a revelation [of the mind of Edith Wharton]' Order ref: 1.   Offered for sale by Stone Trough Books at £60.00

My daughter, who is eight, will have the chance to portray a famous woman in a school event.  We talked over possible people she might pretend to be, and I suggested Edith Wharton.  She was fascinated by the idea.  I don't seem to recall that Wharton wrote children's books.  Can anyone correct me?  I am also interested in any recommendations for a book or even a chapter about her that would be suitable for a third grader.  Thank you.
 

You are to be commended for managing to interest an eight-year-old in
Wharton! I have two thoughts that, while not exactly what you might be
looking for, might nonetheless spark more ideas of your own.

Wharton's famous descriptions in her autobiographies ("A Backward Glance and "Life and I") of her own childhood compulsion to tell stories simply by looking at the type on the pages of books she couldn't yet read herself might engage children themselves. Also, in his biography of Wharton, RWB Lewis reprints a letter (pp. 385-86) she wrote to the precocious child of a friend regarding a stuffed parrot she was sending him for his birthday. It's one of my favorite things she ever wrote, and it certainly illustrates her wonderful regard for children as reasonable, intelligent little beings -- rather than as creatures who needed to be talked down to.

A third thought: when Wharton received notice that her first stories were being published (not long after her marriage, I think) she ran up and down the stairs repeatedly in a frenzy of delight. 
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What great suggestions!

I also think there was once a biography of EW published that was aimed at
younger readers, but I have not been able to locate it.  I remember seeing
it once at the house of a friend's mother, and I assume it was published
some time ago.

If anyone has that reference, would you post it to the list?

Thanks.

Sharon Shaloo
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The biography geared to younger readers referred to is THE TWO FACES OF EDITH WHARTON  by Grace Kellogg, (New York: Appleton Century, 1965).  It is really more for teenagers and older to read themselves...It is quite interesting as actually it is the first biography of Wharton...It opens with  a beautiful description of Wharton, a lonely child,finding the beautiful books in her father's elegant library...You may have to read it with or to an eight-old but I think she will appreciate it.
Annette Zilversmit
 

Dear Charline Spektor:
    The four *Old New York* novellas were published by Appleton's in 1924 in  a boxed set.  All four had been serialized before publication, thanks to the  efforts of Rutger B. Jewett, W.'s editor at Appleton's and one of her most  faithful supporters.   *The Old Maid* ran in *Redbook* (then called *The Red Book Magazine*) in Feb., Mar., and Apr. 1922.  *New Year's Day* ran in the  same magazine in July and Aug. 1923.  *False Dawn* ran in the *Ladies' Home Journal* in Nov. 1923, and *The Spark* was published in the *Ladies' Home Journal* in May 1924.   Hope this helps --
                                           Sarah Bird Wright
                                           (sbwright@aol.com)

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Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2000 10:07:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Olin-Ammentorp, Julie" <olinamme@maple.lemoyne.edu>
Subject: Re: Queries: Old New York

The best source on such queries is _Edith Wharton: A Bibliography_ by Stephen Garrison (Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 1990).  According to Garrison, "The Old Maid" was published in Red Book Magazine in Feb-April 1922; "New Year's Day" was pub. in Red Book Mag July & Aug 1923; "False Dawn" was pub. in Ladies' Home Journal in Nov. 1923; "The Spark" was pub. in Ladies' Home Journal in May 1924. 
Julie Olin-Ammentorp 
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Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 09:06:10 -0500
From: S_shaloo <S_Shaloo@email.msn.com>
Subject: Re: Queries: Old New York

I just wanted to add to Julie's very complete note that unlike other of EW's collections, which happened after the fact, when she had published a certain number of pieces and felt that they would make a volume, OLD NEW YORK was developed as a collection. She first wrote OLD MAID and then NEW YEAR'S DAY, with a working title of, if memory doesn't fail (and, alas, it often does these days) AMONG THE MINGOTTS.  That idea evolved into a four-novella collection, published as Sarah Wright mentioned, in four separate hardcover volumes that were also offered to the trade in a boxed set.  Wharton insisted on a very quick follow-up edition of the four novellas in one volume, but I don't have the date of the edition at hand. 

C.C.B. 
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I believe that there was also a legend (deriving from a misunderstanding of  this capacious beak)  that the pelican would nourish its young with blood drawn from its own breast.  The pelican thus signifies (ironically, in this case) maternal self-sacrifice.  --Donna Campbell

Hello, I just finished reading House of Mirth.  What a book.  What are your ideas on the "word" that Lawrence was coming to tell Lily on the morning of her death?  What could it be?  I'm dying to know!
Thanks, Laura Canis  (3/20/00)

Nancy Merz, Program Manager
 

I believe the quote to which you refer comes from Wharton's "autobiography" _A Backward Glance_:

"In spite of illness, in spite even of the arch-enemy sorrow, one *can*
remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid
of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways" (xix).

Wise words those.
Hope this helps,

Emily Orlando
University of Maryland

  Kimberly Wadsworth

Thanks for your attention. 

Kimberly--

"Xingu" was adapted for the stage by Thomas Seller in 1939.  The
Dramatists Play Service holds the rights to it; it is readily
available.
4/25/00
 

larryjunior75@hotmail.com

QUESTION: My question is "Where do you think Edith Wharton was more creative?
in the countryside or in the city? She wrote novels in places ranging from the States to Paris . . . .  10/16/00

Belushi_Z47@hotmail.com

QUESTION: I have a question regarding the Gothic nature of some of Edith Wharton's stories.  In stories like "Pomegranate Seed" and "Afterward," it seems as if the 'terror' is two-fold.  The circumstances of a woman in the upper class seem to be suffocating enough to set the stage for a gothic story. but it seems like subtextually that these women also bring about the terror from what they do (or don't do) that is in a certain sense the impetus for the terror.  If anyone has any thoughts about this, it would be greatly appreciated!  10/15/00
 

Marie-Pierre Liny

See also the  edition of her letters.
An archive that might prove helpful is the New York State legal resources archive at 
http://www.sara.nysed.gov/holding/fact/women-fa.htm