First Person Singular by Wendy Braitman

filed in What Gets Me Through the Day

Keeping Up With the Joneses

January 24, 2011 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Today is the birthday of the great writer, Edith Wharton. Her novel, The Age of Innocence, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1921, making her the first woman to win one. She was born Edith Newbold Jones, into a very wealthy family, and the expression, “keeping up with the Joneses,” refers to them. Wharton was friends with the leading artists of her day, including Henry James, who encouraged her to write about the elite New York City she grew up in, even though she despised it. I keep this quote of hers close at hand: If only we’d stop trying to be happy we’d have a pretty good time.

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