Dear Edith Wharton Society,
This is a preliminary note to seek any counsel you may have. I have, with the permission of Watkins/Loomis Agency, obtained a limited permission to adaptation “Roman Fever” into a stage production. This script is very faithful to the story and incorporates both traditional scenes and some proposed dance sequences to illustrate scenes from the two focal characters’ early life. I am in talks with the Annapolis Shakespeare Company here in Maryland to create a workshop production for later this year. It is anticipated that the work would be livestreamed for a limited time and feature professional actors and dancers and original music.
As with most workshops in regional theaters, the budget must be small and the funding for it cannot take away from the budgets for the theater company’s mainstage productions. While a formal budget is in the works, we don’t anticipate it to amount to more than between 5 and 10 thousand dollars.
Any knowledge you may have of possible donors, grants or sponsorships from organizations that would have particular interest in promoting the works of Edith Wharton would be very appreciated.
I have attached my professional bio, and here is the link to the Annapolis Shakespeare Company for your information: https://www.annapolisshakespeare.org/index.html
I am happy to communicate via email, phone or Zoom and provide the draft script or other information as needed.
WIth appreciation,
Greg Jones Elliswww.gregjonesellis.com
Category Archives: Announcements
Edith Wharton: Designing the Drawing Room
An online exhibition at the Beinecke Library, Yale University.
https://onlineexhibits.library.yale.edu/s/edith-wharton/page/introduction
One century ago, Edith Wharton (1862–1937) published The Age of Innocence, a novel that has become one of her most beloved works. Less known is her first full-length publication, an 1897 interior design treatise titled The Decoration of Houses. Wharton’s keen interest in architecture and the design of interiors and gardens remained with her throughout her career. While she published novels, stories, poems, and nonfiction, she directed the design of her homes, from her country estate The Mount in Lenox, Massachusetts, to her New York City residence on Park Avenue.
Many of Wharton’s ideas about interior design react against the lavish frills and profusion of patterned cloth present in her childhood home, pictured here, at West 25th Street in NYC
Wharton ca. 1920, the year The Age of Innocence was published
Edith Wharton: Designing the Drawing Room brings together both aspects of Wharton’s career. It explores the rules she defined in The Decoration of Houses and their application in her own homes alongside her attention to design details in the handwritten manuscript of The Age of Innocence. These pages reveal Wharton’s deep engagement with the material world during her writing process and in the published novel.
This exhibit focuses on Wharton’s treatment of the drawing room, known to her as a female space during a period of limiting gendered customs. In the world she describes in much of her writing, the drawing room was a specific sort of sitting room to which women would traditionally “withdraw” following dinner. The drawing room was also a space in which women could spend their days and receive guests. As such, drawing rooms provide a particularly rich context for understanding Wharton’s elite New York City society at the turn of the twentieth century and the role of women within it.
https://onlineexhibits.library.yale.edu/s/edith-wharton/page/edith-wharton-welcome
Submitted by Sharon Kim.
EWS Directory Updated
The Edith Wharton Society Membership Directory has been updated:
https://edithwhartonsociety.wordpress.com/membership/directory/
Update: Mock Trial of Ethan Frome (4 PM EST)
The Zoom info and documents for tomorrow’s mock trial of Ethan Frome have gone out on wharton-l https://edithwhartonsociety.wordpress.com/membership/wharton-l/
Please find attached each side’s legal brief for tomorrow’s Zoom mock trial, which will start at 4:00 EST. Pretrial hearings will start at 3:00, so please do not be surprised if there is ongoing activity when you enter Zoom. The class is both excited and a little intimidated that members of EWS will be in attendance. If you have any questions, please let me know.
Wharton Queries: Information on In Morocco
My name is Diane, i am journalist from french television station called Arte, a french and german channel : https://www.arte.tv/fr/
We produce a daily cultural show : Invitation au Voyage, broadcasted every day at 4.30 pm. It deals with travel, culture, history and discovery
https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/RC-014340/invitation-au-voyage/
I am contacting you because i am preparing a report about Edith Wharton in Morroco. I am currently based in Rabat and i am looking for some documentation, analysis, thesis, any supports, about her trip and i thought that may be you could help me ?
Name: DIANE ARAGOU
Email:diane.aragou@gmail.com
EWS Board Meeting Minutes from MLA 2021
The meeting minutes from the EWS Board meeting at MLA 2021 are available under Membership – EWS Business and also here:
https://edithwhartonsociety.wordpress.com/membership/ews-business-2/2021-01-08-mla-minutes/
Past minutes are available by clicking on Membership – EWS Business or here:
https://edithwhartonsociety.wordpress.com/membership/ews-business-2/
Edith Wharton Online Event: February Tea with TLW: Dr Emily Orlando on The Decoration of Houses
February Tea with the Transatlantic Literary Women
Dr Emily Orlando on The Decoration of Houses
Wednesday 3 February 2021, 5pm UK time
“Sheltering in Place with Edith Wharton: Re-Reading The Decoration of Houses in a Time of Global Crisis”
Please join us for our February #TeawithTLW when we’re delighted to be joined by renowned Edith Wharton scholar, Dr Emily Orlando.
This month, we’re discussing Edith Wharton – the prominent design writer! Emily will be talking about Wharton’s first book, the hugely influential The Decoration of Houses, which was co-written with the American architect Ogden Codman Jr.
In her talk, Emily will be asking the question: how does Wharton’s design work speak to us anew in a global pandemic? She will discuss the many ways that the 1897 book resonates with 21st-century readers, providing a new look at one of Wharton’s texts from a contemporary perspective. So, pop the kettle on and make sure you have a snack, to settle in for a wonderful discussion of one of TLW’s favourite authors!
All welcome!
If you’d like to join us, please email: transatlantic.women@gmail.com and we’ll send you a secure Zoom link in the week of the event.
We hope to see you there!
Team TLW: Laura, Chiara, Lindsay
#TeawithTLW
EWS Business: Vote on Amendments to the EWS Constitution by February 7
Dear EWS Members,
I’d like to ask you to vote on two amendments to the EWS Constitution. The first is from the Executive Board proposing that the annual Board meeting, in the past held in person at the MLA convention, in the future be held in a virtual format such as Zoom. Please see the attached proposal for further details.
The second amendment is from Melanie and me, originally drafted in 2019, to create the position of Society Archivist. Due to an error or oversight no longer in anyone’s memory, this was not voted on in 2019. I would appreciate your vote now, particularly since we have already filled the position and Carole Shaffer-Koros has already located items of interest related to EWS history. This full proposal is also attached.
Please use this link to vote by Sunday, February 7, end of the day (wherever you are):
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/28JZDSX
Please let me know if you have any questions. Best wishes to all. Hopefully we see some light at the end of COVID, but I know hard times are still here for many.
Best,
Jennifer
Dr. Jennifer Haytock
President, Edith Wharton Society
Happy Birthday to Edith Wharton (b. January 24, 1862)
In spite of illness, in spite even of the arch-enemy sorrow, one CAN
remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is
unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in
big things, and happy in small ways. Edith Wharton, A Backward Glance
EWS Officers, 2021-2023
A complete list of officers from previous years is available under Membership – Officers and Executive Board
2021-23
President: Jennifer Haytock, jhaytock@brockport.eduSUNY Brockport
Immediate Past President: Melanie Dawson, mvdaws@wm.edu William & Mary
Vice President: Myrto Drizou, myrto.drizou@boun.edu.trBoğaziçi University
Secretary: Jay Jessee, mjjessee@uab.edu University of Alabama at Birmingham
Treasurer: Sharon Kim, skim@judsonu.edu Judson University
Editor of the Edith Wharton Review: Paul Ohler,paul.ohler@kpu.caKwantlen Polytechnic University
Webmaster: Donna Campbell, campbelld@wsu.edu Washington State University(Ex Officio)
Membership Committee: Chair Sheila Liming, sliming@champlain.edu Champlain College
EWS Archivist: Carole Shaffer-Koros, https://edithwhartonsociety.wordpress.com/membership/about/ews-archives/
At-Large Executive Board Members
Laura Rattray, Laura.Rattray@glasgow.ac.uk University of Glasgow
Virginia Ricard, Virginia.Ricard@u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr Bordeaux Montaigne University
Meg Toth, margaret.toth@manhattan.edu Manhattan College
