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1-50 of 13,913
- Writer
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Clement Moore was born on 15 July 1779 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for Lance's Crappy Christmas (2021), The Night Before Christmas (1912) and Mission Rejected (2019). He was married to Catherine Taylor. He died on 10 July 1863 in Newport, Rhode Island, USA.- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
- Additional Crew
Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 - November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820), both of which appear in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works include biographies of Oliver Goldsmith, Muhammad and George Washington, as well as several histories of 15th-century Spain that deal with subjects such as Alhambra, Christopher Columbus and the Moors. Irving served as American ambassador to Spain in the 1840s.- Cornelius Vanderbilt was born on 27 May 1794 in Staten Island, New York City, New York, USA. He was married to Francis Crawford and Sophia Johnson. He died on 4 January 1877 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Soundtrack
John Hill Hewitt was born on 11 July 1801 in New York City, New York, USA. He was married to Mary Smith and Estelle Mangin. He died on 7 October 1890 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.- Writer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Julia Ward Howe was born on 27 May 1819 in New York City, New York, USA. She was a writer, known for The Manchurian Candidate (2004), Captive State (2019) and Kick-Ass (2010). She was married to Samuel Gridley Howe. She died on 17 October 1910 in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, USA.- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. Although his reputation was not high at the time of his death, the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival, and Moby-Dick grew to be considered one of the great American novels.- Mary Mapes Dodge was born on 26 January 1831 in New York City, New York, USA. Mary Mapes was a writer, known for The Magical World of Disney (1954), Silver Skates (2020) and Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates (1958). Mary Mapes was married to William Dodge. Mary Mapes died on 21 August 1905 in Onteora Park, New York, USA.
- James Gordon Bennett Jr. was born on 10 May 1841 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Great International Automobile Race for the Gordon-Bennett Trophy (1904), A Terrific Race (1903) and Start of the Gordon-Bennet Cup Race (1903). He was married to Maud Potter (Baroness de Reuter). He died on 14 May 1918 in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Alpes-Maritimes, France.
- Henry James was born 15 April 1843, to a wealthy family. He was born in New York, New York USA. His parents were Henry James Sr. and Mary Robertson Walsh; He had one brother William James (January 11 1842-August 26 1910) and one sister Alice James. When Henry James was a young boy he would enjoy reading the classics of English, American, German, French, and Russian literature. Also when he was a kid he and his family would travel back and forth to England and the United States of America. Henry James educated in New York City, London, Paris and Geneva.
He tried to strive for a higher education then he decided it was not for him and writing was his calling in life. (When Henry James was at the age of 19 he briefly attended Harvard Law School, but preferred reading literature to studying law). When Henry James hit the age of 21 he decided to write his first novel, A Tragedy of error. From that point on he started to write. He went on to write 23 more novels in his lifetime (this is a short list of the book's he wrote the Ambassadors, The Golden Bowl, The Portrait of a Lady, The American, Washington Square, The Bostonians, and The Wings of the Dove). Henry James also was an extraordinarily productive on top of all of his novels he wrote he published articles an, biography, autobiography, and criticism, and wrote plays (one of them being Guy Domville), some of which were performed during his lifetime with moderate success. Henry James also wrote a whole lot of short stories for either the local news or just for fun. He often wrote for the New York tribune. Henry James was a key stone writer of his time (He was one of the foremost literary figures of his time, leaving us an enormous body of novels, 'tales' (short stories), literary and art criticism, autobiography and travel writing). Throughout his life he was in love with his cousin, Mary Temple, but later in life while he was in London he became homosexual, the young man he started to wright was at the age of 27 and Henry James was at the age of 56. He also wrote another guy named, Howard Sturgis. They started to write back and forth and they started to have more emotion in the letters. He also started to write a woman named Lucy Clifford; But Henry James never got married in his lifetime. Henry James brother William James died when Henry James was at the age of 67; Henry James had a stroke on Dec 2nd of 1915. His health started to decline from then. He died in London in Feb. 28th of 1916. When he died he was not only a citizen for the United States of America but also a British subject. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium and his ashes are interred at Cambridge, Massachusetts. - Alfred Wagstaff was born on 21 March 1844 in New York City, New York, USA. He died on 2 October 1921 in Babylon, Suffolk, New York, USA.
- John Dalzell was born on 19 April 1845 in New York City, New York, USA. He died on 2 October 1927 in Altadena, California, USA.
- James R. Waite was born on 22 June 1845 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Cleopatra (1912), None But the Brave Deserve the Fair (1912) and On the Pupil of His Eye (1912). He was married to Virginia Dormer. He died on 9 November 1913 in New York City, New York, USA.
- George Siler was born on 23 September 1846 in New York City, New York, USA. He died on 13 June 1908 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
- Born on Sullivan Street in Greenwich Village, Henry Francis Downing was a member of a prominent African American family of New York City. After serving in the U.S. Navy during the American Civil War, Henry Downing traveled the world, stopping in the West African country of Liberia for several years. After returning to New York, he became involved in local politics. In 1886, he was appointed U.S. Consul to Loanda, Angola, in Portuguese East Africa, where he served until his resignation in 1888. He would later move to Great Britain, where he would serve as a commercial agent representing Liberian businessmen and for European merchants interested in African markets. Downing became involved in Pan-African activities (he would eventually support Marcus Garvey and his "Back to Africa" movement) and began a prolific output of writings, including nine plays, two novels, a number of essays and short stories and several works on Liberia.
- Robert A. Van Wyck was born on 20 July 1849 in New York City, New York, USA. He died on 14 November 1918 in Paris, France.
- Writer
- Music Department
Poet Emma Lazarus was born into a wealthy family in New York City on July 22, 1849. Her first book of poems, "Poems and Translations", was published in 1867, when she was just 18. Renowned author Ralph Waldo Emerson was impressed with her work and praised it, and her next book, "Admetus and Other Poems" in 1871, was dedicated to him. She published a string of well-received poems and verse works over the next few years.
In 1881 she became involved in the plight of the new waves of immigrants to the US, and became a strong advocate of the rights of immigrants, an unpopular stance during a time when many immigrant groups--especially those of Eastern Europe and Ireland--were under attack by anti-immigrant groups in the US, who said they were "polluting" US culture. Her most famous work, "The New Colossus", was chosen to be the inscription on the base of the Statue of Liberty, welcoming immigrants coming into New York harbor. It contains what are among the most well-known words in the English language: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free".
She published her last book in 1887, and died in New York City on November 19 that year.- Isaac Henderson was born on 13 February 1850 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for The Mummy and the Humming Bird (1915). He was married to Marion Temple Brown. He died on 31 March 1909 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
- Dore Davidson was born on 16 October 1851 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Welcome Stranger (1924), Intolerance (1916) and Grit (1924). He died on 7 March 1930 in New York City, New York, USA.
- August Belmont Jr. was born on 18 February 1853 in New York City, New York, USA. He was married to Eleanor Robson Belmont and Elizabeth Hamilton Morgan. He died on 10 December 1924 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
- Actor
- Director
Ralph Delmore was born on 18 December 1853 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Conquest of Canaan (1916), The Cynic (1914) and The Stolen Heart (1913). He was married to Gertrude Daws (actress 1874-1916) and Angy Griffith (actress 1857-1888). He died on 21 November 1923 in New York City, New York, USA.- C. Oliver Iselin was born on 8 June 1854 in New York City, New York, USA. He was married to Hope Iselin and Frances Garner. He died on 1 January 1932 in Brookville, New York, USA.
- Jacob Abrams was born on 27 June 1854 in New York City, New York, USA. He is known for God's Gold (1921), Social Briars (1918) and The Blood of His Fathers (1917).
- James Bland was an African-American musician and composer who wrote many songs about the American South for use in minstrel shows. His most famous was Carry Me Back to Old Virginny (1878), which became the official State Song of Virginia, being retired in 1997 due to racial controversies. Bland was born in Flushing, New York on October 22, 1854, one of eight children to educated free parents. His father bought him an eight-dollar banjo and Bland was soon performing professionally by his early teens. He attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., but soon pursued music, inspired by the music of some of the workers on the Howard campus, and joined the all-black Georgia Minstrels in the late 1870's. He soon married fellow Howard student and Virginia native Mamie Friend, and was inspired to write Carry Me Back to Old Virginny after hearing her speak of her homesickness while away at college. Other songs composed by Bland were In the Morning in the Bright Light (1879), In the Evening by the Moonlight (1879), and his second most famous song, Oh! Dem Golden Slippers (1879), known today mostly because it was used in an often-aired Golden Grahams cereal television commercial in the 1970's. In 1881, he moved to London, spending the next twenty years there before returning to the United States. While in London, he performed without blackface and gave command performances for Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales. Bland was making $10,000 a year at one point but recklessly spent his money. In 1901 he returned penniless to Washington, D.C., and as the popularity of minstrel shows waned, Bland could not find work. He died alone in Philadelphia on May 5, 1911, a victim of tuberculosis. He was buried in an unmarked grave but in 1939 the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) provided a headstone at the grave site to commemorate his life. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
- Thomas Commerford was born on 1 August 1855 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Ex-Convict (1913), Frauds (1915) and The Hobo's Rest Cure (1912). He died on 17 February 1920 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
- Thomas F. Fallon was born on 8 September 1855 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for While New York Sleeps (1920), The Last Warning (1928) and The House of Fear (1939). He died on 19 June 1930 in New York, USA.
- American novelist Edgar Evertson Saltus was born in New York City in 1855. His family had been in New York City for quite some time--his ancestor, Adm. Kornelis Evertson of the Dutch Navy, had led the expedition that captured New York from the British in 1673.
Saltus got his schooling in New York City and attended Yale University in 1876, but left after a year. He spent several years traveling around Europe. He returned to the US and attended Columbia University, where he obtained a law degree (although he never practiced law). His first published work was a biography of 'Honore de Balzac', "Balzac", in 1884. "The Philosophy of Disenchatment", which came out the next year, was an account of philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer and his school.
His first novel was "Mr. Incoul's Misadventure" in 1887, and was well received. He turned out several more works over the next few years, both fiction and non-fiction (his 1893 book "Imperial Purple", a study of Roman emperors, was a favorite of US President 'Warren G. Harding'). He is also thought to have written several "potboilers" under other names, including such works as "The Lovers of the World" and "The Great Battles of All Nations".
Married three times--the last to the woman who wrote his biography--he died in 1921 in New York City after a long illness. - Frances Turner was born on 10 June 1856 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Price of Big Bob's Silence (1912). She was married to William Turner. She died on 8 February 1944 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Frank Losee was born on 12 June 1856 in Brooklyn [now in New York City], New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Old Homestead (1915), Seven Keys to Baldpate (1917) and Sinners (1920). He was married to Marion Elmore. He died on 14 November 1937 in Yonkers, New York, USA.
- Thomas Jefferson was born on 10 September 1856 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Tarzan of the Apes (1918), The Missing Links (1916) and Rip Van Winkle (1914). He was married to Daisy Jefferson and Eugenia Paul. He died on 2 April 1932 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Writer
- Actor
Robert Hilliard was born on 28 May 1857 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for The Avalanche (1915), The Ex-Convict (1904) and Artistic Interference (1916). He was married to Olga Everard Williams, Nellie R. W. Murphy and Cora Bell. He died on 6 June 1927 in New York City, New York, USA.- Writer
- Soundtrack
Edgar Smith was born on 9 December 1857 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for Old Dutch (1915), Sweet Rosie O'Grady (1943) and Song of the Roses (1929). He was married to Nanette B. Nixon, Estelle Bensel and Marietta Lydia Oliver. He died on 8 March 1938 in Bayside, New York, USA.- Writer
- Additional Crew
Gus Hill was a producer of popular theatricals in the late 19th and early 20th century. Primarily known for producing "cartoon theatricals" (mostly musical adaptations of comic strips) from the 1890s through the 1920s. Known for his productions of Yellow Kid shows as well as adaptations of Mutt & Jeff and Bringing Up Father. Also produced several films late in his career.- Best-known for performing the most popular baseball poem, "Casey at the Bat." Filmed as one of the first talkies, 5 years before The Jazz Singer (1927), Casey at the Bat (1922), was included in Ken Burns' Baseball (1994). Hopper, a fervent New York Giant fan, first performed the then-unknown poem to the Giants and Chicago Cubs, on the day his friend, Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Tim Keefe had his record 19 game winning streak stopped, August 14, 1888. The dying General William T. Sherman was also in the audience that evening, along with Keefe and his brother-in-law shortstop/attorney John Montgomery Ward. 2 months later the Giants won New York's first world championship.
Hopper recited Casey for almost 40 years in films, on stage, records, radio etc. Known as the "Husband of His Country" for his 6 marriages. He became totally hairless, with blue-tinged skin, possibly from reaction to a patent medicine. Even so, his powerful voice and great sense of humor mesmerized women all his life. One of his wives was the gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. Their son, the white-maned William Hopper, played private investigator Paul Drake on Perry Mason for many years. - Writer
- Producer
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 - January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or his initials T. R., was an American politician, statesman, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. He previously served as the 25th vice president under William McKinley from March to September 1901, and as the 33rd governor of New York from 1899 to 1900. Having assumed the presidency after McKinley's assassination, Roosevelt emerged as a leader of the Republican Party and became a driving force for anti-trust and Progressive policies.- Dion Boucicault Jr. was born on 23 May 1859 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Masks and Faces (1917). He was married to Irene Vanbrugh. He died on 25 June 1929 in Hurley, Buckinghamshire, England, UK.
- Billy the Kid was born on 23 November 1859 in New York City, New York, USA. He died on 14 July 1881 in Fort Sumner, New Mexico Territory.
- Actor
- Writer
Joseph Holland was born on 20 December 1859 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Rich Idler (1916), Back to Primitive (1913) and A Perilous Ride (1913). He died on 25 September 1926 in New York City, New York, USA.- American character actor of silent films, Edward Connelly, a native New Yorker, was a newspaperman before he became an actor, being a reporter for the New York Sunl. At 25 he joined a theatrical stock company in Kansas City and appeared subsequently on Broadway in such plays as "Shore Acres," "The Belle of New York," "Babbitt," "The Wild Duck," and his own production of "Marse Covington," which he later filmed (Marse Covington (1915)). Moving to Hollywood, he became a contract player at MGM, where he remained until his death from influenza in 1928.
- Louis Stern was born on 10 January 1860 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Eye for Eye (1918), The Great Victory, Wilson or the Kaiser? The Fall of the Hohenzollerns (1919) and Where East Is East (1929). He was married to Peggy Ward. He died on 15 February 1941 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Samuel T. Shaw was born on 23 October 1860 in New York City, New York, USA. He died on 10 February 1945 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Born in New York City in 1861, pianist/composer Edward MacDowell formally studied music at an early age. He went to Paris, France, at age 15 and attended the world-famous Conservatoire. Two years later he left France and traveled to Germany, where he studied at the Frankfurt Conservatory. He found his niche there, and three years later he was appointed head piano instructor at the Darmstadt Conservatory, where he began his composing career. He worked with famed composer Franz Liszt, who was impressed with his work and encouraged him to continue composing. His compositions met with success in Europe, and he returned to the US in 1884, where he married Harriet Nevins, who had been one of his pupils in Germany. They returned to Germany shortly thereafter, living in Wiesbaden until 1888, when they went back to the US and settled in Boston, Massachusetts. He began to teach music privately, and performed works of his own and other musicians' all over the city.
In 1896 he was offered the job of head of the new Music Department at Columbia University in New York, and he accepted. There he began an orchestra and a chorus, but when he attempted to make the musical arts part of the academic curriculum, he ran into strong opposition from the more conservative academics, who argued that serious music students did not study at American universities but traveled to Europe for study, as he did. He was not able to overcome those faculty objections, and, exasperated, he resigned from his position and took to his farm in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Although he continued to compose music, he rarely made public appearances after that incident. He died in New York City on January 23, 1908.- He grew up in wealthy circumstances as the son of Meyer Guggenheim. After graduating from high school, he studied in Philadelphia and Switzerland. Solomon Guggenheim became a millionaire as a copper industrialist. With his passion for collecting old master paintings, he joined the tradition of New York's moneyed nobility. His brother, Benjamin Guggenheim, died in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. With the acquaintance of the German painter Baroness Hilla Rebay von Ehrenwiesen, who introduced him to European artists of the abstract style, Solomon R. Guggenheim collected modern and contemporary art. In the beginning these were particularly works by Wassily Kandinsky and Marc Chagall. Kandinsky's works became the central foundation stone for what later became the Solomon Guggenheim Museum and the largest collection of Kandinsky works in the world. Solomon Guggenheim was not only a collector but also an art patron. With his purchases of contemporary art, he supported artists and disseminated their works.
Guggenheim acquired numerous important works by avant-garde artists from Europe such as Pieter Mondriaan, Pablo Picasso, László Moholy-Nagy and Robert Delaunay. In addition to paintings, the American patron also collected sculptures. In 1937, Guggenheim founded the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. The foundation's fundamental task was to collect, preserve, interpret and present visual art and cultural objects from the 20th century. The collecting focused on so-called "non-objective" art, which differs from abstract art in its definition as a conception based exclusively on artistic intuition. In 1939, the foundation opened the "Museum of Non-Objective Art" in New York, where Solomon R. Guggenheim's collection was made accessible to the public. While the foundation's art objects were initially exhibited in an exhibition hall for old cars on East 54th in New York, plans emerged in 1943 to build the first Guggenheim Museum in New York. The architect Frank Lloyd Wright was hired to provide the design.
However, the museum building itself was only realized as an architectural work of art after controversial discussions between 1956 and 1959. In appearance it resembles a snail shell. It was opened posthumously in 1959. The basis for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation was initially Solomon Guggenheim's collection. Other collections or individual works were later added as donations or purchases. Large collections, such as those of the masterpieces of impressionism, post-impressionism, early modernism by Justin and Hilde Thannhauser, German expressionism by Karl Nirendorf, paintings and sculptures of the historical avant-garde by Katherine Dreier, abstract style and surrealism by Peggy Guggenheim or the Minimal and Conceptual Art of Count Giuseppe Panza di Biumo made the Guggenheim Museum the world's largest art temple.
Solomon R. Guggenheim died on November 3, 1949 in New York.
The Guggenheim Museum in Berlin opened in 1997. This reveals a special connection, especially since not only the Guggenheim family comes from Germany, but also the first director of the Guggenheim Museum, Hilla Rebauy. The Guggenheim Foundation owns numerous works by German artists. The following locations belong to the Guggenheim Foundation's museum empire: the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Guggenheim Museum SoHo in New York, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin and the Hermitage Guggenheim Museum in Las Vegas.
Works of art from the late 19th century and the avant-garde of the 20th century such as Paul Cezanne, Joseph Beuys, Robert Rauschenberg, Mark Rothko, Constantin Brancusi, Paul Klee, Alexander Calder, Edgar Degas, Fernand Léger and Richard Serra are exhibited there. The Guggenheim Museum also maintains the largest collection of its kind in the world with over 200 paintings by Kandinsky. - Augustus Yorke was born on 14 February 1861 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Tailor of Bond Street (1916), The Grit of a Jew (1917) and A Just Deception (1917). He died on 27 December 1939.
- Anne Harriman-Vanderbilt was born on 17 February 1861 in New York City, New York, USA. She was married to William Kissam Vanderbilt, Lewis Morris Rutherfurd Jr. and Samuel Stevens Sands Jr.. She died on 20 April 1940 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Adolph Lestina was born on 26 February 1861 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Girl Who Stayed at Home (1919), The Burglar's Dilemma (1912) and A Wreath of Orange Blossoms (1911). He was married to Mary Elizabeth (Bessie) Rice (aka Bessie Lea Lestina, actress). He died on 23 August 1923 in New Rochelle, New York, USA.
- Mrs. William Bechtel was born on 12 June 1861 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Birth of the Star Spangled Banner (1914), Abe Gets Even with Father (1911) and The Purple Lady (1916). She was married to William Bechtel. She died on 21 October 1938 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Hal Wilson was born on 2 October 1861 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Sundown (1924), Indian Romeo and Juliet (1912) and Rob Roy (1913). He was married to Ethel Harbord. He died on 22 May 1933 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Director
- Cinematographer
- Writer
Wallace McCutcheon was born on 3 November 1861 in New York City, USA. He was a director and cinematographer, known for 20, 000 Leagues Under the Sea (1905), The Nihilist (1905) and How They Rob Men in Chicago (1900). He was married to Mira West. He died on 3 October 1918 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA.- Edith Wharton (née Jones) was an American novelist and short story writer from New York City. She had insider knowledge of New York's upper class, which she realistically portrayed in her works. In 1921, Wharton became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. She won the award for her historical novel "The Age of Innocence" (1920), where she portrayed the rigid worldview of the 1870s aristocrats of New York. She spend the last few decades of her life as an expatriate in France.
In 1862, Wharton was born in New York City. Her parents were George Frederic Jones and Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander. The Joneses were a wealthy and well-connected family in New York, having earned their wealth through real estate business. Through her mother, Wharton was a great-granddaughter of Lieutenant Colonel Ebenezer Stevens (1751 -1823), an officer of the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Through her father, Wharton was a first cousin, once removed, of the famed socialite Caroline Schermerhorn Astor (1830 - 1908). Astor was the de facto leader of the "Four Hundred", an informal grouping of New York's wealthy socialites who were seen as "champions of old money and tradition".
From 1866 to 1872, Wharton and her family made extensive travels across Europe. During her stay in Europe, Wharton became a fluent speaker in French, German, and Italian. She was educated by tutors and governesses. She also loved to read the books in her father's library, though her mother forbade her to read novels.
In 1871, Wharton faced the first crisis of her life. During an extended visit in the Black Forest of Germany, Wharton suffered from typhoid fever. The disease almost killed her. In 1872, the Joneses returned to the United States. They divided their time between New York City (in the winter) and Newport, Rhode Island (in the summer).
From an early age, Wharton started writing her own fictional works. By 1873, she had written an incomplete novel. In 1877, Wharton publisher her first work. It was an English translation of the German poem "Was die Steine Erzählen" ("What the Stones Tell") by Heinrich Karl Brugsch (1827 -1894). She was paid 50 dollars for her work, the first money she earned as a writer.
She had to use a pseudonym for her first published work, at the insistence of her parents. A writing career was out-of-the-question for proper "society women" of this era. Also in 1877, Wharton completed the novella "Fast and Loose". In 1878, she had a collection of her poems and translations privately published by her father. In 1879, one of her pseudonymous poems was published in the "New York World". In 1880, five of her poems were published in the literary magazine "Atlantic Monthly". Her family and her social circle discouraged her from continuing her promising literary career. Wharton did not write anything of note between 1880 and 1889, when one of her poems was published in "Scribner's Magazine".
In 1879, Wharton came out as a debutante at the age of 17. She soon was courted by Henry Leyden Stevens, son of the prosperous hotel owner Paran Stevens. Her family disapproved her new relationship. In 1881, Wharton and her family returned to Europe. George Jones' health had started failing, and he hoped that a stay in Europe would help him recover. In 1882, he died in Cannes, France due to a stroke.
In 1882, Wharton and her widowed mother returned to the United States. Wharton was briefly engaged to her persistent suitor Henry Leyden Stevens, but the engagement was canceled without any known explanation. In 1883, Wharton started living separately from her mother Lucretia. Lucretia had decided to settle permanently in France, where she lived until her death in 1901.
In 1885, Wharton married the sportsman Edward Robbins "Teddy" Wharton, who was 12 years older than her. The two of them shared a love of travel. Between 1886 and 1897, the couple spent several months each year in Europe. Their favorite destination was Italy; Wharton retained a love of this country for decades.
In the late 1880s, Teddy suffered from acute depression. As the years passed and his mental state declined, the couple ceased their extensive travels. They spent most of their time at "The Mount", their country house in Lenox, Massachusetts. Wharton herself reportedly struggled with asthma and bouts of depression in the late 19th century.
From 1908 to 1909, Wharton had a mid-life extramarital affair with the journalist William Morton Fullerton (1865 -1952). In 1913, Wharton divorced Teddy. Their marriage had lasted for 28 years, but caring for a chronically depressed man had taken its toll on her.
In 1911, as her marriage deteriorated, Wharton decided to move permanently to Paris, France. During World War I (1914-1918), Wharton supported the French war effort. In 1914, Wharton opened a workroom for unemployed women. In 1914, she helped set up the American Hostels for Refugees, to care for Belgian war refugees in France. In 1915. she helped found the Children of Flanders Rescue Committee, which sheltered about 900 Belgian refugees.
In 1915, Wharton wrote articles about France's front-lines. She regularly visited the trenches of the Western Front to get a first-hand view of the war, and was within earshot of artillery fire. Her articles were collected in the non-fiction book "Fighting France: From Dunkerque to Belfort" (1915).
In 1916, President Raymond Poincaré appointed Wharton a chevalier (knight) of the Legion of Honour, the country's highest award, in recognition of her dedication to the war effort. During the war, she helped in the founding of tuberculosis hospitals. In 1919, following the war's end, Wharton decided to leave Paris and to settle in the French countryside. She purchased Pavillon Colombe, an 18th-century house located in Saint-Brice-sous-Foret. It remained her main residence until her death.
In 1921, Wharton became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction though her win was controversial. The three fiction judges employed for the contest voted that the award should be given to Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951). Columbia University's advisory board overturned their decision and decided that the winner was Wharton. Wharton was also nominated three times for the Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1927, 1928, and 1930), without ever winning.
In 1934, Wharton published her autobiography under the title "A Backward Glance". The work is noted for omitting some of the more difficult aspects of her life, which became known after Wharton's death. Among these omitted aspects were Wharton's rather poor relationship with her mother Lucretia, the personal problems which she faced while married with Teddy, and her extramarital affair with Fullerton.
In June 1937, Wharton was working on a revised edition of an older work, when she suffered a heart attack. She recovered, but suffered a stroke in August of the same year. She died due to the stroke, at the age of 75. She was buried in the American Protestant section of the Cimetière des Gonards in Versailles. She was given war hero honors at her funeral.
Wharton remains one of the most celebrated American writers of the 20th century, in large part due to her astute criticism of the 19th-century upper class, and her vivid depictions of a world that was long gone even when she wrote her novels. Her prose works remain in print, while her poetry is largely forgotten. - Edward Elkas was born on 8 February 1862 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Blue Bird (1918), Les Misérables (1917) and For the Honor of the Crew (1915). He was married to Helene Soltesz. He died on 17 December 1933 in St. Albans, New York, USA.