5 FACTz ON EDiTH WHARTON

*She combined her insider's view of America's privileged classes with a brilliant, natural wit to write humorous and incisive novels and short stories.

*In 1885, at 23 years of age, she married Edward (Teddy) Robbins Wharton, who was twelve years her senior.

*Wharton and her husband divorced in 1913, after she suffered a nervous breakdown and was confined to a hospital.

*Having grown up in upper-class pre-World War I society, Wharton became one of its most astute critics.

*Wharton continued writing until her death, lying in bed and dropping each finished page to the floor to be collected when she finished