The End of the Age of Innocence: Edith Wharton and the First World War

While America as a nation stayed out of the early years of World War I, with many Americans judging it to be strictly a European affair, the American writer Edith Wharton believed nothing less than that civilization hung in the balance in the allied battle against the Germans. Driven by a passion to save Europe from German domination, Wharton went to France and Belgium and involved herself with a number of war relief and charity activities. She raised funds, distributed medicine to the troops, and organized work projects for women. Most interestingly, she wrote a series of influential essays that sought to influence American opinion on the war and hasten U.S. involvement. She also edited an anthology of writings about and illustrations of the war by prominent writers and artists, the profits of which benefited war charities. Alan Price's book chronicles Wharton's wartime involvements and considers her wartime writings in an interesting view of an overlooked piece of literary history.