A HABITATION FOR HERSELF

Inside The Mount

Wharton found that “the country quiet” she immersed herself in at The Mount “stimulated [her] creative zeal,” and she was quite prolific while living there. From this home she wrote The House of Mirth, a 1905 novel that gained wide acclaim, and prepared Ethan Frome for publication in the United States.

Drawing Room at The Mount

The drawing room, pictured above, was the largest room at The Mount. Because this room was located on the level above the ground floor where guests would enter, it afforded Wharton a heightened sense of privacy. The drawing room was connected to the library, seen below, which housed Wharton’s collection of books. However, she tended to work in neither the drawing room nor the library: she preferred to write in her bed. 

Library

Hallway

Dining Room

Wharton sold The Mount in 1911, when her marriage with Teddy had crumbled. She still thought of her home in Lenox decades later: in her autobiography, Wharton wrote, “[The Mount’s] blessed influence still lives in me.”