The Mount was to give me country cares and joys, long happy rides and drives through the wooded lanes of that loveliest region, the companionship of dear friends, and the freedom from trivial obligations, which was necessary if I was to go on with my writing. The Mount was my first real home … its blessed influence still lives in me.
– Edith Wharton, 1934
Completed in 1902, The Mount sits in the rolling landscape of the Berkshire Hills, with views overlooking Laurel Lake and all the way out to the mountains. At the turn of the century, Lenox and Stockbridge were thriving summer resort communities, home to Vanderbilts, Sloanes, and other leading families of the Gilded Age. Edith Wharton at Home connects The Mount to that milieu and details Wharton’s design of the house and landscape. Embodying principles set forth in Wharton’s famous book The Decorating of Houses and her deep knowledge of Italian gardens, The Mount is truly an autobiographical house. There Wharton wrote some of her best-known and successful novels including Ethan Frome and House of Mirth.
Published to coincide with the celebrations surrounding the 150th anniversary of Wharton’s birth, Edith Wharton at Home presents Wharton as a writer, as a designer, and as a hostess. Authoritative text by Richard Guy Wilson, Commonwealth Professor of Architectural History at the University of Virginia and host of the popular series America’s Castles is illustrated with archival images as well as new color photography of the restoration of The Mount and its spectacular gardens.
Edith Wharton at Home is an ideal addition to The Mount Bookshop (initial buyback of 500 copies; visitation of 30,000 annually with a significant increase anticipated for the 150th anniversary celebration).