Edith Wharton was an American novelist who lived from 1862 to 1937. She wrote over 40 books in her career, including Ethan Frome and The House of Mirth. Wharton was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and received honorary degrees from Yale University. She built her home called The Mount in 1902 and was known for her ghost stories and writing about Italian architecture.