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5 Legendary Writers' Homes


Edith Wharton's View

The Mount, Lenox, Massachusetts

The first female novelist to win a Pulitzer Prize, Wharton spent several hours writing in bed each morning. This is the view from her second-story bedroom, which mirrors the panorama her character Lily Bart takes in below.

Everything in her surroundings ministered to feelings of ease and amenity. The windows stood open to the sparkling freshness of the September morning, and between the yellow boughs she caught a perspective of hedges and parterres leading by degrees of lessening formality to the free undulations of the park.
— The House of Mirth, 1905
Open daily; $13 to $16 admission; www.edithwharton.org. The Mount faces foreclosure in October 2008. Keep this landmark open by contributing to Save the Mount. For details, visit www.edithwharton.org/savemount.php
Related Resource

From the Fall 2008 issue of O at Home




Photos: Henrik Knudsen; reporting: Mark Amundsen