Certain People

Edith Wharton, an influential American writer of the Gilded Age, expertly depicted the lives and morals of the upper-class New York society. Notably, she was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Literature in 1921 for The Age of Innocence. Her extensive body of work includes 15 novels, seven novellas, and numerous short stories, alongside contributions to poetry, design, and cultural criticism. Wharton's late start in novel writing did not hinder her prolific career, which earned her a place in the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1996.