“One of the surprises of her unoccupied state was the discovery that time, when it is left to itself and no definite demands are made on it, cannot be trusted to move at any recognized pace. Usually it loiters; but just when one has come to count upon its slowness, it may suddenly break into a wild irrational gallop.”

American writer and designer

Edith Wharton was an American writer and designer. Born in 1862 and active in the early 20th century, she is known for fiction that drew on her knowledge of upper-class New York society, especially the manners and constraints of the Gilded Age. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1921 for The Age of Innocence, becoming the first woman to receive it. Her best-known works also include The House of Mirth, the novella Ethan Frome, and several notable ghost stories, which helped define her reputation for sharp social realism and careful observation.