I'm afraid I'm an incorrigible life-lover, life-wonderer, and adventurer.

Edith Wharton

Most people recognize Edith Wharton’s name from her enduring works of fiction, including her novels "The Age of Innocence" (1920) and "Ethan Frome" (1911). But many would be surprised to learn that the accomplished author was also a veritable Renaissance woman with myriad passions and talents. Throughout her life, and despite the restrictions imposed on women at that time, she made a name for herself as an interior decorator, garden designer, travel writer, war journalist, and the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize. In a letter to a friend just before her death in 1937, Wharton wrote, “I wish I knew what people meant when they say they find ‘emptiness’ in this wonderful adventure of living.”