In 1900, Edith Wharton burst into the settled summer colony of Lenox.
But her perceptive and sometimes indisc.
As a hostess, designer, gardener and writer, Wharton set high standards that delighted many, including Ambassador Joseph Choate and sculptor Daniel Chester French.
She and her husband, Teddy, planned a defiantly classical villa, and she became a bestselling author with The House of Mirth in 1905.
An aspiring novelist in her thirties, she was already a ferocious aesthete and intellect.
In 1900, Edith Wharton burst into the settled summer colony of Lenox