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After Wharton died in 1937, the majority of the contents of her
library were bequeathed to two men: William Royall Tyler, the son of
Elisina and Royall Tyler, who worked with Wharton on her charity
relief efforts during World War I, and Colin Clark, the son of the
British art historian Kenneth Clark and Wharton’s godson. The books
in Tyler’s possession, comprising a third of Wharton’s collection, were
placed in storage in England and later destroyed by fire during the Blitz
in 1940. Clark integrated his inherited books into his own library at
Saltwood Castle in Kent, in southern England.
The Clark family ultimately sold Wharton’s books to the London
booksellers, Maggs Brothers, who then sold them in 1984 to George
Ramsden, a book dealer in York, England, for £45,000, then worth
around $80,000. Yet, Ramsden knew the collection was incomplete.
Ramsden labored for two decades to reassemble Wharton’s library,
purchasing six hundred more volumes from the Clark family (stray
books were found in the libraries of other Clark relations) and
cataloging the library before its sale and return home to The Mount.
According to The New York Times article on the sale, “Annotations
The Mount tinted postcard. circa 1910. courtesy Lenox Library Association in the volumes offer a window into her world. There is an inscribed
volume from Morton Fullerton, her journalist lover in Paris, said by
scholars to have been Wharton’s most significant romantic partner. He
The Decoration of Houses with a colleague, so it was a dream for her to dedicated a copy of Problems of Power, a study in international politics,
start The Mount from scratch. She was involved in every detail – inside to “Edith Wharton, but for whom this book would never have been
and outside. She loved “classical balance, symmetry, and simplicity” written.” Theodore Roosevelt inscribed a copy of his 1915 America and
and designed rooms based on the function they would serve. the World War with the words: “To Edith Wharton from an American-
The entire estate was designed as a complete work of art, informed American!” And there are, of course, books signed by Henry James,
by French, Italian, and English traditions, which throw some oblique light into the deep
yet adapted for the American landscape. It friendship she maintained with him. (“To Edith
features a classically inspired Main House, Wharton — in sympathy,” James wrote in The Golden
an elegant Georgian Revival Stable, formal Bowl in 1904).
gardens, and a sculpted landscape. Hermione Lee, a prominent scholar at Oxford
Inspired by her time in the Berkshires University, who is preparing a new Wharton biography,
and the community of fellow writers that called the library “a form of writer’s autobiography”
had migrated to the region, Edith’s writing in the 1998 foreword of a catalog of the collection
career took off while she lived at The prepared by Mr. Ramsden.
Mount. Overall, she wrote 40 novels in 40 “Her whole social milieu, her private affairs, and her
years, but many of her best-known novels literary career can be discerned from her collection,”
were written within the walls of this home, Ms. Lee wrote. “Wharton’s flyleaves show her
including The House of Mirth (1905) and progression from Edith Jones to Mrs. Edward Wharton
Ethan Frome (1911). to Edith Wharton, as she turns herself from a society
Edith and Teddy lived in the house from girl into the much-admired and somewhat daunting
1902 to 1911 before she packed up her internationally famous author.”
furniture, personal possessions, and books “The unique thing about this library is that she
and moved to France to start a new life. She wrote about it in her autobiography,” Mr. Ramsden
passed away in 1937 having never returned said. “She really tells you what books really meant to
to the Berkshires. her. Even before she could read, she could be found
In her autobiography A Backward Glance alone with a book upside down in her hands. The
(1934), Wharton wrote that her life in physical presence of books continued to mean a lot
France was characterized by a variety of Portrait of EdithWharton to her.”
pleasures, human and literary: “These new
friendships, and many others, added much to my enjoyment of Paris;
but the core of my life was under my own roof, among my books and
my intimate friends.”
After the Whartons moved out, The Mount passed to another
private resident before it became a dormitory for a girls’ school, the
Foxhollow School, and then the site of the Shakespeare & Company
theatre troupe. Subsequently, the Edith Wharton Restoration
purchased the property and oversaw its restoration to its original
condition. Today, The Mount is a National Historic Landmark, where
thousands visit each year to “celebrate the intellectual, artistic, and
humanitarian legacy of Edith Wharton.”

Edith’s Books

Wharton’s beloved books traveled with their owner through a
succession of residences in New York, Newport, and Lenox before
traveling across the ocean with her to France. Through the years,
Wharton’s library evolved and by the end of her life, she had been given
so many books and had given so many away that it was hard to say what
all she had. That became even more of a challenge for Wharton scholars
after her death and the distribution of her personal effects, including
her books. Southwest view of the library at the Mount

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