1926

  Charters 360-ton steam yacht Osprey for ten-week cruise with guests, including Robert Norton and Daisy Chanler, through the Mediterranean and Aegean, March–June. Here and Beyond, collection of short stories, published by Appleton in summer. Twelve Poems published in London by The Medici Society. Elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. September, travels with Berry through northern Italy. Finishes novel Twilight Sleep in November. Buys Ste.-Claire, Hyères home, for $40,000.

  1927

  January, Berry suffers mild stroke; convalesces at Hyères for five weeks, depressed and irritable. The Pictorial Review pays $40,000 for serial rights to novel The Children after Delineator offers $42,000; promises Delineator the novel The Keys of Heaven, based on famous 1847 murder of the Duchesse de Choiseul. Twilight Sleep published by Appleton in May; sells well. Walter Berry suffers second stroke in Paris, October 2. Wharton visits him on his deathbed; he dies October 12. Writes Lapsley: “No words can tell of my desolation. He had been to me in turn all that one being can be to another, in love, in friendship, in understanding.” Mildred and Robert Bliss nominate Wharton for the Nobel Prize, repeating their efforts, with no success, in 1928 and 1929. November, assembles packet of documents, mostly concerning Edward’s illness, labelled “For my biographer.”

  1928

  Edward Wharton dies in New York, February 7. The Children is serialized in The Pictorial Review April–July, published by Appleton in September; earns $120,000 from sales and film rights. May, travels to Spain with Daisy Chanler, and spends summer in England, meeting Evelyn Waugh. Begins novel Hudson River Bracketed, with material from earlier unfinished novel Literature, after abandoning The Keys of Heaven. Friendship develops with Desmond MacCarthy, British writer and editor. December, The Age of Innocence, dramatized by Margaret Ayer Barnes, opens on Broadway, runs until June 1929, then tours for four months, earning Wharton $23,500.

  1929

  January, severe winter storms devastate Ste.-Claire gardens; describes effect as “torture.” February, learns that Delineator began serialization of Hudson River Bracketed in September 1928, six months ahead of schedule. Severely ill in March with myocarditis and an irregular heartbeat. Recovers by midsummer. Saddened by death of Geoffrey Scott in August. Finishes Hudson River Bracketed (published by Appleton in November) and begins restoration of Ste.-Claire gardens. Awarded Gold Medal for “special distinction in literature” by American Academy of Arts and Letters. Elected to the Royal Society of Literature in Britain. Begins friendship with museum curators Eric Maclagan, Louis Metman, and Louis Gillet.

  1930

  Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Certain People, collection of short stories, published by Appleton in summer. Begins novel The Gods Arrive, sequel to Hudson River Bracketed. Autumn, friendship develops with art critic and historian Kenneth Clark while traveling in Tuscany. December, meets Aldous Huxley, who introduces her to anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski. Turns down honorary doctorate from Columbia University on grounds of health (it is offered and refused again the following year and in 1934). After stock market crash, royalties for year total only $5,000, compared to $95,000 in 1929.

  1931

  Fullerton visits twice, in June and September. Visits England in July and sees H. G. Wells, Harold Nicolson, and Osbert, Sacheverell, and Dame Edith Sitwell. Attends several Roman Catholic services during visit to Rome in November.

  1932

  January, finishes The Gods Arrive. Rejected for serial publication by The Saturday Evening Post, Liberty, and Collier’s because it features an unmarried couple living together. Sold to Delineator for $50,000 despite Wharton’s anger over handling of Hudson River Bracketed, appearing February–August. Published by Appleton later in year, it sells poorly. Begins autobiography A Backward Glance. Visits Rome in May. Becomes godmother to Kenneth Clark’s son Colin.

  1933

  Catherine Gross, Wharton’s companion since 1884, falls into paranoid dementia in April, dies in October. Elise Duvlenck, her personal maid since 1914, dies May 29. Human Nature, collection of short stories, published by Appleton. By threat of legal action, forces Ladies’ Home Journal to honor pre-Depression agreement to pay $25,000 for her autobiography; installments appear October 1933–March 1934. June, vacations in England with Gaillard Lapsley, visits Wales for the first time; August, goes to Salzburg for a week and October, visits Holland. Begins novel The Buccaneers (never finished, but published by Appleton-Century in 1938 with Wharton’s long outline of the remainder of the story and an afterword by Lapsley).

  1934

  Tours England and Scotland. Guided through National Gallery in London by Kenneth Clark. A Backward Glance published by Appleton-Century. Breaks with Appleton editor Rutger Jewett, who had acted as her agent without commission for over a decade, blaming him for decreased literary earnings; engages James Pinker as new agent.

  1935

  The Old Maid, dramatized by Zoë Akins, opens in New York for successful run. April, suffers mild stroke, with temporary loss of sight in left eye. September 22, Mary Cadwalader Jones dies.

  1936

  Ethan Frome, dramatized by Owen and Donald Davis, tours United States after successful New York run. Income from both plays is about $130,000, ending financial worry. Visits England in the summer. The World Over, collection of short stories, published by Appleton-Century.

  1937

  Sends last completed short story, “All Souls’,” to her agent, February. Health declines; suffers heart attack, June 1, while visiting Ogden Codman to discuss new edition of The Decoration of Houses. Has stroke on August 7 and dies at St. Brice on the evening of August 11. Buried near Walter Berry in the Cimetière des Gonards, Versailles, August 14. Last story collection, Ghosts, published posthumously in September.

  Note on the Text

  This e-book contains one novel by Edith Wharton: A Son at the Front (1923).

  Most of Wharton’s novels were published first in periodicals and then in book form, the serialization often beginning before Wharton had finished writing the final chapters, and the book sometimes appearing shortly before the serialization ended. Because of this situation, Wharton sent her American book publishers revised proofs showing her latest alterations. This e-book therefore uses the first American edition as its text.

  A Son at the Front was begun in summer 1918, around the time of the death on August 12 of Ronald Simmons, on whom she based the character of Boylston. (She considered printing “In Memory of Boylston” on the title page.) In July 1919, she offered the novel to Appleton to be serialized and then published in book form, but Rutger B. Jewett, Wharton’s editor at Appleton, cabled her: “War Books Dead in America.” Appleton serialized The Age of Innocence instead. A Son at the Front was serialized in Scribner’s Magazine from December 1922 to September 1923 and published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in September 1923. A British edition was published by Macmillan in September 1923, using different plates but identical in text to the American first edition.

  This e-book presents the text of the original printing chosen for inclusion here, but it does not attempt to reproduce features of its typographic design. The text is presented without change, except for the correction of typographical errors. Spelling, punctuation, and capitalization are often expressive features, and they are not altered, even when inconsistent or irregular. The following is a list of typographical errors corrected, cited by page and line number of the print edition: 44.12, aggultinative; 61.29, we’ve; 62.6, Vanerlyn; 74.16, grasped; 120.26, place.; 126.26, she I; 146.15, monuths; 178.35, Buttles’; 203.26, keenly “Ah,”; 220.20–21, pleaded. “Two; 250.30, threatres,; 268.25, we was; 274.31, Frankfort; 276.20, Fortin-Luscluze; 296.19, ‘Of; 301.34, “No.”; 326.3, from a; 361.24, farther; 386.33, lips; 393.3, happened?’; 449.15, the the; 483.12, different.—; 588.2, knew; 674.25, letters,; 706.28, woke; 789.26, retractation; 812.11, tarring; 904.11, prepare; 924.16, childred; 938.25, fragance; 961.29, back.”; 984.10, hornbean.

  Notes

  In the notes below, the reference numbers denote page and line of the print edition (the line count includes headings). No note is given for material included in standard desk-reference books. For references to other studies and further information than is included in the Chronology, see Hermione Lee, Edith Wharton (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007); and Sarah Bird Wright, Edith Wharton A to Z (New York: Checkmark Books, 1998).

  229.2–3 Something veil’d . . . beings.] From “Spiritual Characters among the Soldiers” in Specimen Days (1882), by Walt Whitman.

  230.3 Ronald Simmons] Simmons (1885–1918) was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the son of the president of a coal company. He graduated from Yale in 1907, studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for three years, and then moved to Paris, where he continued architectural studies before turning to painting. After World War I began, Simmons helped organize the the Comité des Étudiants Américains de L’École des Beaux-Arts, which supported former students of the school serving at the front. In 1916 he befriended Wharton and helped run the convalescent centers she had established for tubercular French soldiers. When the United States entered the war in 1917, Simmons served as a civilian member of the American Military Commission before being commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army. Unfit for front-line duty because of short-sightedness and a weak heart, he served as an intelligence officer with the Inter-Allied Bureau in Paris and then with the supply service in Bordeaux. In August 1918 Simmons fell victim to the Spanish flu epidemic and died at Marseilles. Wharton based the character of Boylston in A Son at the Front on him.

  246.3 Bois] The Bois de Boulogne, a large park at the edge of the 16th arrondissement of Paris and a popular promenade destination for the upper class.

  247.19 a first edition of Lavengro] Lavengro: The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest (1851), an autobiographical novel by English author George Borrow.

  248.14 the Engadine] A valley in the Swiss Alps famous as a health resort because of its sunny climate.

  255.15 diligence journey] A diligence was a type of stagecoach drawn by four or more horses that could hold about fifteen passengers.

  258.28 Tauchnitz] Inexpensive paperback editions of British, American, and German authors, precursors to modern mass-market paperbacks, produced by German publishing firm Bernhard Tauchnitz starting in 1841.

  261.13–14 maréchal des logis] Sergeant.

  271.20 India-rubber plant] Ficus elastica, an ornamental houseplant. It produces a milky white latex that was once used to make rubber.

  275.32 ‘The Golden Bough’] The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (1890) by Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer. It was first read by Wharton in the 1890s.

  278.17 ‘Nous l’avons eu, votre Rhin allemand,’] French: We had it once, your German Rhine. From “Le Rhin allemand” (1841) by Alfred de Musset, a literary reply to Nikolaus Becker’s popular “Rheinlied” (1840). Both poems were written in response to the Rhine crisis that began in the summer of 1840 when the Thiers ministry called for reestablishing the eastern border of France on the Rhine. In October 1840 Louis-Phillippe dismissed Thiers, ending the crisis.

  278.18 Hock] German white wine, sometimes specifically from the Rhine region.

  280.6 Kriegsgefahrzustand] German declaration of “threatening danger of war.”

  283.3–4 it’s up to him . . . American slang] From poker terminology; newly in common use at the start of World War I.

  286.25 crossing of Luxembourg and the invasion of Belgium] The German army occupied Luxembourg on August 2, 1914, and invaded the neutral country of Belgium on August 4 in an attempt to outflank the French forces positioned on the German border. The violation of Belgian neutrality caused Great Britain to declare war on Germany on August 4.

  287.4 Channel tunnel] The idea of creating a Channel Tunnel between England and France had first been suggested in 1802 and first attempted in 1881–82, but was abandoned because of concerns for national defense. Construction did not begin on the current Channel Tunnel until 1988; it was completed in 1994.

  287.6–7 Belgium had announced her intention of resisting] On August 3, 1914, the Belgian government informed the German government of its intention “to repel, by all means in their power, every attack upon their rights.” German troops invaded Belgium the following morning.

  287.23 Saverne] Protests began in the Alsatian town of Saverne (Zabern) after the press reported on November 6, 1913, that a young Prussian officer in the local garrison, Lieutenant Günther von Forstner, had made insulting and provocative remarks about the local population. On November 28 troops from the garrison illegally arrested and imprisoned more than two dozen townspeople, and on December 2 von Forstner severely beat a disabled shoemaker who had publicly mocked him. A military court sentenced him to forty-three days’ imprisonment, but the sentence was overturned in January 1914 on the grounds that Forstner had been defending the honor of the army. The Saverne incidents resulted in widespread protests throughout Germany against military independence from civil authority.

  288.18 the Rosenkavalier] Der Rosenkavalier, 1911 opera by German composer Richard Strauss.

  291.2 On les aura, pas, mon vieux?] French: We’ll get them, no, my old man?

  292.28 laiterie?] A small restaurant or café where milk-based drinks are served.

  293.28 “sad dog,”] Slang: a wicked or debauched man.

  294.21 Chasseurs Alpins] Elite mountain infantry of the French army, created in the late nineteenth century.

  294.31 Nancy . . . German occupation] Nancy was occupied by German troops in 1870–71 during the Franco-Prussian War, but remained in France under the terms of the peace treaty.

  300.32 the burning of Louvain] Alarmed by rumors of partisan snipers, German troops killed more than two hundred civilians in the Belgian city of Louvain, August 25–30, 1914, and burned much of the town, including the university library.

  300.33 the bombardment of Rheims.] The Germans began shelling Reims on September 12, 1914, and caused severe damage to its cathedral on September 19.

  304.40 crape] Mourning cloth.

  308.26 “Kommandantur”] German: headquarters.

  309.36–37 Raffet . . . interpreted Napoleon’s campaigns] Auguste Raffet (1804–1860), French illustrator famous for his lithographs depicting Napoleonic campaigns.

  314.12 “p.t.o.”] Abbreviation: please turn over.

  314.13–14 Nouveau Luxe] See note 97.34.

  321.23–24 Juan de Borgoña’s pictures of the Inquisition, in the Prado.] Borgoña (c. 1470–1536), born in the Duchy of Burgundy, is credited with introducing the High Renaissance style of painting to Spain.

  326.3 Umbrian triptych] The Umbrian School, an Italian Renaissance school of painting, which included Perugino and Raphael.

  326.12 Infirmière-Major] Matron, or senior nurse.

  328.15 “dolman” and “mantle”] The dolman mantle, a women’s outer garment fashionable in the 1870s and ’80s, with large cape-like sleeves; and dolman sleeves, popular during the Civil War, which were created by sewing the sleeve into a low armhole to give the appearance of sloping shoulders.

  328.17 play “Caste.”] Comedy (1867) concerning distinctions of class and rank, by English dramatist Thomas William Robertson.

  328.30 cabinet particulier] A private dining room at a restaurant.

  334.12 Ford runabout] An early style of car body, with no windshield, top, or doors, and two seats. Ford’s Model A and Model T automobiles were runabouts until about 1915.

  334.13 papier timbré] Stamped paper for official documents or correspondence.

  345.4 embusqués] Shirkers, or soldiers not at the front.

  347.33 porte-cochère] A covered portico or archway next to a building’s entrance through which a carriage or automobile could drive.

  348.3 entresol] A mezzanine or intermediate floor.

  348.29 Postes de Secours] Emergency medical centers at the front; literally rescue posts.

  358.19 pâtes tendres] Bone china.

  360.26 Barye cire-perdue] A lost-wax cast replica of a sculpture by Antoine-Louis Barye (1796–1875), famous for his sculptures of animals.

  361.4–5 Neuve Chapelle] Town in the Artois region, site of a British offensive, March 10–13, 1915.

  368.12 On se fait une raison] French: It is a reason.

  370.4 cafés chantants] Outdoor cafés with live music.

  371.2 Chasseurs à Pied] French light infantry.

  380.11 Allons donc!] French: Surely not! or Come now!

  381.10–11 “une femme exquise” or “une bonne vieille”] French: “an exquisite woman”; “a good old woman.”

  387.13 Agnus Dei] In the Roman Catholic Church, a wax disc impressed with the figure of a lamb bearing a cross and blessed by the Pope; often worn on a chain as a necklace.

  393.6 Lusitania] The British ocean liner RMS Lusitania, en route from New York to Liverpool, was torpedoed and sunk without warning off the coast of Ireland by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915, with the loss of 1,198 lives, including 128 U.S. citizens. The Germans justified the sinking on the grounds that the ship had carried munitions in its cargo. After an exchange of diplomatic messages, President Woodrow Wilson obtained on September 1 a pledge from the German government that its submarines would no longer attack passenger liners without warning.

  393.6 the writing on the wall.] Cf. Daniel 5.

  393.23 Maine] USS Maine, an American armored cruiser, blew up and sank in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898, with the loss of 262 of its crew. A U.S. board of inquiry determined in March 1898 that the explosion was caused by an underwater mine, and its conclusion was reaffirmed by a second investigation in 1911. (An unofficial investigation in 1976 attributed the explosion to a coal bunker fire on board the ship.) The destruction of the Maine was widely attributed in the United States to the Spanish, and the event contributed to the American declaration of war on Spain on April 25.