Page 28 - july-joa-23

display is Baldassare Castiglione’s Il Cortegiano del Conte
(The Book of the Courtier) (1528), almost four centuries
senior to the newest books from the 1930s, acquired just
before her death.

The Cost of Recovery

The opportunity to purchase and return Wharton’s
personal library of books to The Mount presented a
financially daunting yet intriguing prospect for the
committee working on the restoration of the house and
property. Ramsden was asking $2.6 million for the
books—twice their appraised value—but many insiders
involved in The Mount’s restoration believed their
return to her home would be invaluable and help fulfill
the organization’s mission to “preserve and restore The
Mount as a living tribute to its remarkable creator and to
promote and celebrate the literary arts in all its forms.”
It took several years and much negotiating but by 2005
the deal was sealed, and arrangements were made to pack
and ship the collection; however, the organization was
already in debt paying for the restoration of the property
and keeping its doors open to the public.
Northwest view of the Library of The Mount Between 1993 and 2005, The Edith Wharton Restoration amassed
Yale Collection of American Literature Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library $13 million from private and public sources. But operating expenses,
which reached about two million dollars a year, were always higher than
revenues, and there was no endowment to supply the shortfall. The
Wharton’s Library Room at The Mount Edith Wharton Restoration was spending about $300,000 a year
more than it was making. It was against this bleak financial backdrop
The sizable 20x25-foot wood-paneled library Wharton designed on that the organization threw itself into further debt by purchasing
the main floor of The Mount was a significant attribute of the house. Wharton’s books.
She was well aware that the history of such rooms lay with men. In A Robert Wilmers, the former head of M&T Bank and a summer
Backward Glance, Wharton writes, “In my grand-parents’ day every Berkshires resident, lent The Edith Wharton Restoration $2.5 million
gentleman had what was called ‘a gentleman’s library.’ In my father’s at a low-interest rate, to be repaid within two years. That helped to seal
day, these libraries still existed, though they were often only a back- the deal but only added to The Mount’s precarious financial position.
ground; but in our case Macaulay, Prescott, Motley, Sainte-Beuve, By 2008, The Mount owed $8.5 million to various parties including
Augustin Thierry, Victor Hugo, the Brontës, Mrs. Gaskell, Ruskin, their commercial lender that was threatening to foreclose on the house.
[and] Coleridge, had been added to the French and English classics in There was no choice but to go public with their plight and hope for help.
their stately calf bindings. Were these latter ever read? Not often, I The public release of that information, although embarrassing,
imagine; but they were there; they represented a standard; and perhaps placed The Mount on the radar of wealthy donors and Wharton fans.
some mysterious emanation disengaged itself from them, obscurely Within a few years, a quiet national fundraising campaign among a
fighting for the protection of the languages they had illustrated.” small, targeted list of donors and a deal with the Town of Lenox for
Wharton writes in her autobiography that growing up, her father’s public access to the property raised enough money by 2015 to pay off
library was a room in which she spent many memorable days of her The Mount’s entire debt, ensuring her home and library remains open
childhood, exploring: “I have wandered far from my father’s library … for future generations of scholars and Wharton fans.
But the library calls me back, and I pause on its threshold.” In designing
her Library room at The Mount, Wharton sought to recreate this The Mount, located in Lenox, MA, is open from May through October.
experience and sanctuary in her own home. Yet this was not a writing For more information, visit www.edithwharton.org.
room for Wharton. It is said she did the bulk of her writing in bed.

Visiting the Library The Mount today

Today, the Library at The Mount does not encompass the author’s
entire collection but rather the tomes that survived World War II. Of
the 2,700 works now residing at The Mount, 1,800 are in storage, and
900 grace the recessed bookshelves of her library, the only room at The
Mount to boast its original contents.
When the books first came home in 2005, it was Ramsden that
decided which texts to display, and where, based on the conditions of
the books; historical accuracy, referencing photographs of the library
from Wharton’s time; representation of a cross-section of the author’s
interests; and aesthetic concerns.
The library shelves showcase French philosophy; Russian, German,
Italian, French, and American literature; drama and poetry; theology,
classics, and history; gardening and architecture; and Wharton’s own
volumes. Wharton’s signature on the flyleaf—“Edith Newbold Jones”
or “Edith Wharton”—clarifies which books she acquired as a child and
young adult, and which after marriage. The author’s bookplates hail
from Land’s End, her home in Newport, Rhode Island before her
residence at The Mount; Pavillon Colombe, her home north of Paris;
and Hyères, her home in the French Riviera. The oldest book on

26 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles