Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was born into the upper echelons of New York society. She began writing in 1887, but it was the 1905 publication of her second novel, The House of Mirth, that made her famous. Over the course of her career, Wharton became a bestselling author, worked as a reporter at the French front during World War I (receiving the Cross of the Legion of Honor as a result), and won the Pulitzer Prize.