The Edith Wharton Society is delighted to announce three prizes for 2022: the Elsa Nettels Prize for a Beginning Scholar, the Edith Wharton Society Award for Archival Research, and the Edith Wharton Society Undergraduate Research Prize. Below please find all calls for submissions. All submission materials should be sent via email by June 30, 2022 to current EWS President, Jennifer Haytock, SUNY Brockport, jhaytock@brockport.edu.

The Elsa Nettels Prize for a Beginning Scholar

This award, formerly known as the “Edith Wharton Society Prize for a Beginning Scholar,” established in 2005, recognizes the best unpublished essay on Edith Wharton’s work by a beginning scholar, advanced graduate student, independent scholar, or faculty member who has held a full-time appointment for four or fewer years. All entries will be considered for publication in The Edith Wharton Review, published by Penn State University Press. The author of the prize-winning essay will receive an award of $250.

How to apply:

Submissions should be 20-30 double-spaced pages long and follow the 8th edition MLA style, using endnotes rather than footnotes.
Submissions should include two attached files: an anonymized MS Word version of your paper and a separate cover letter containing the applicant’s name, essay title, academic status, e-mail address, postal address, and the award name.
Please use the subject line: “EWS Elsa Nettels Prize for a Beginning Scholar.”
Submissions are due to jhaytock@brockport.edu by June 30, 2022.

The Edith Wharton Society Award for Archival Research

The archival award, in the amount of $500, enables a scholar to conduct research at one of the Edith Wharton archives at Wharton’s library at The Mount in Lenox, MA, the Wharton Collection at Yale University’s Beinecke Library, or the Wharton papers at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas.

Funds must be used for transportation, lodging, and other expenses related to archival research. Notification of the award will take place by August 15, 2022. The award can be used between August 15, 2022 and August 14, 2023. A brief report detailing some aspect(s) of the research (not intended to preempt publication in other scholarly venues) will be due to the EWS president by September 1, 2023 and will be published in the Edith Wharton Review.

How to apply:

Submissions should include a proposal (of no more than two single-spaced pages) that describes the applicant’s overarching research project, its contribution to Wharton scholarship, the applicant’s scholarly preparation, and the relevance of the archive to the project’s completion.
Also include two additional attachments: a CV and a separate cover letter containing your current affiliation, rank, and mailing address.
Please use the subject line: “EWS Award for Archival Research.”
Submissions are due to jhaytock@brockport.edu by June 30, 2022.

The Edith Wharton Society Undergraduate Research Prize

First offered in 2014, the undergraduate research prize is open to students at all undergraduate levels. Papers should be no more than fifteen pages long and can address Wharton’s works in any genre. The winning essay will be published on the EWS website, and the author will receive an award of $100.

Queries and Replies: Definition of “toilets” in Custom of the Country

May I inquire about the meaning of ‘toilets’ used several times in the Custom of the Country? It seems to suggest as some sort of accessories ladies wore on their person that can be seen and admired.
Thank you. — Joy Cutler

Reply: The meaning in Custom of the Country and other older novels is often “to make one’s toilet or toilette,” meaning to prepare one’s hair to go out or be in company. The Oxford English Dictionary has this to say: “Frequently in form toilette. The action or process of washing, dressing, or arranging the hair. Frequently in to make one’s toilet.” Here’s the OED example from Washington Irving’s Bracebridge Hall: ” She actually spent an hour longer at her toilette, and made her appearance with her hair uncommonly frizzed and powdered.”

Another common reference is “toilet water n. [after French eau de toilette (see eau de toilette n. at eau n. f)] a dilute form of perfume, esp. one largely alcoholic in content used as a skin freshener; eau de toilette.” — Donna Campbell

For more queries, go to https://edithwhartonsociety.wordpress.com/category/queries/

“L’Amérique en guerre” in Commentaire

From Virginia Ricard:

I thought it might interest some members of the Edith Wharton Society to know that the spring issue (n° 177) of the influential French review, Commentaire, has just published “L’Amérique en guerre” with a short introduction by Jean-Claude Casanova who read the translation in the February 2018 issue of the TLS and then found the original text in the March 1918 issue of the Revue Hebdomadaire. French admirers of Wharton (of which there are many) will now be able to acquaint themselves with another aspect of the talent of the “grande romancière, poétesse et essayiste américaine.”

https://www.commentaire.fr/numeros/printemps-2022-177

Edith Wharton Panels and Papers at the American Literature Association Conference, Chicago, 26-29 May 2022

Friday, May 27, 11:30 a.m – 12:50 p.m.

Session 9-F Edith Wharton, Bodies, and Mobility
Organized by the Edith Wharton Society
Chair: Gary Totten, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

“Transnationalism and Character Identity in American Novels: Wharton’s The Custom of the Country
and The Reef at the Turn of the Century,” Samantha Seto, King’s College, London
“Lily Bart’s Body Electric,” Haley Larsen, Independent Scholar
“Hidden Bodies: Disability, Corporeality, and the Imperial Past in Edith Wharton’s Short Fiction,” Donna Campbell, Washington State University

Friday, May 27, 4:00-5:20 p.m.

Session 12-G Edith Wharton’s Short Stories
Organized by the Edith Wharton Society
Chair: Myrto Drizou, Boğaziçi University

“‘Between myself and my readers’: Edith Wharton’s Ghost Stories and the American Unfinished,” Kacie Fodness, University of South Dakota
“Edith Wharton’s ‘Blonde Beasts,’” Maria-Novella Mercuri, University College London, UK
“Not that Innocent: Teaching Edith Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever,’” M. M. Dawley, Lesley University

Sessions 10K and 11M are currently (4/22/22) listed as Edith Wharton Business Meetings.

TLW Talk: Dr. Lina Geriguis on Ecoliteracy and Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome (13 April 2022)

From Laura Rattray: Just a quick note now to let you know about our next Tea with the Transatlantic Literary Women event on Wed 13 April at 5pm UK/noon NYC when we’re delighted to be joined by Dr Lina Geriguis who will be talking about Ecoliteracy and Ethan Frome

Chiara, Lindsay and I really hope you’ll join us for what promises to be a great talk! Lindsay has posted the talk details here: https://transatlanticladies.wordpress.com/2022/03/08/april-tea-with-tlw-dr-lina-geriguis-on-ecoliteracy-and-edith-whartons-ethan-frome/

April Tea with TLW: Dr Lina Geriguis on Ecoliteracy and Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome – Transatlantic Literary WomenWednesday 13th April 20225pm UK TimeApril Tea with TLW: Dr Lina Geriguis on Ecoliteracy and Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome Well, we can’t quite believe it’s spring already, but our Tea with TLW series is still going strong. In April we’ll be meeting on the second Wednesday of the month with a talk about one of…transatlanticladies.wordpress.com

Queries: What do Wharton scholars think of the Marion Mainwaring version of The Buccaneers?

The book group I lead just read The Buccaneers. A central question arose: how is it that a writer –– in this case, Marion Mainwaring –– was able to “complete” Edith Wharton’s unfinished manuscript? (And find a major publisher willing to print it?) Was Mainwaring a friend of Edith Wharton’s? Did she need permission from Wharton’s literary executors? What does the Edith Wharton Society, as a body of EW scholars, think of the results?

Are there other instances where an authors’ unfinished work was completed by someone else?

Any insights you can offer would be most appreciated.

Thank you, terri epstein, Email: terriepstein13@gmail.com

Response:

Dear Ms. Epstein,

I can’t speak for all EWS members about this edition, but Marion Mainwaring (1922-2015) was a translator and literary critic who researched materials for Wharton’s first modern biographer R. W. B. Lewis on his 1985 biography of Edith Wharton. In addition to her edition of The Buccaneers, she published Mysteries of Paris: The Quest for Morton Fullerton (2001), billed as “The first complete account of Edith Wharton’s unknown lover.” –Donna Campbell

BBC production of Wharton’s The Shadow of a Doubt now available again

Edith Wharton’s unpublished play _The Shadow of a Doubt_ is once again available at the link below on BBC Radio 3. (If you think it sounds like The Fruit of the Tree, you’re right.)

The Shadow of a Doubt

Phoebe Fox, Francesca Annis and Paul Ready star in the world premiere of a newly discovered play by Edith Wharton from 1901. Former nurse Kate Derwent carries a terrible secret.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000xfl

Thanks to Laura Rattray for alerting the EWS to this production’s renewed availability.

CFP: Wharton and Ecology (Edith Wharton Review) (deadline September 15, 2022)

Wharton and Ecology

Special Issue of the Edith Wharton Review

Call for Papers

Guest editors Melanie Dawson and Jennifer Haytock seek contributions for a special issue of the Edith Wharton Review focusing on “Wharton and Ecology.” Essays may cover any aspect of Wharton’s writing about the natural world, gardening, surrounding environmental contexts/histories, deep time, animal nature(s), healthy and unhealthy ecosystems, and travel to and within specific environmental systems. “Ecologies” may also encompass systems and networks that include but also extend beyond the natural world. We welcome attention to all aspects of Wharton’s work (fiction, poetry, travel writing, plays, letters, gardens).

Essays are due by September 15, 2022 for publication in spring 2023. Essays should be between 20 and 30 pages long, including notes and Works Cited, in accordance with MLA guidelines. We welcome inquiries at mvdaws@wm.edu and jhaytock@brockport.edu.

The Edith Wharton Society

Edith Wharton Panels and Meeting at ALA 2022

Edith Wharton Panels at ALA 2022 (updated 2022.05.17)

EWS Research Awards (Deadline 30 June 2022)