Edith Wharton

In 1921, Edith Wharton (1862–1937) became the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize, awarded for her novel The Age of Innocence. In that work and many others, Wharton portrayed a moneyed, materialistic society whose conventions restricted and destroyed the desires of its members. Though best known as an American novelist, Wharton, who spent most of her adult life in France, also received the French Legion of Honor for her extensive work helping refugees and others during World War I.

The Edith Wharton stamp was issued in 1980. It is part of the Literary Arts series.