An extraordinary woman who became a leading writer of the day--even more extraordinary because she became a writer in an age when women in her day in upper crust NYC were expected only to attend society events. Edith Wharton's Backward glance explains her love of books and writing at an early age. Born during the Civil War, she lived through the turn of the century during WWI and into the 1930s. She was an intrepid traveler embracing the earliest motor cars. During WWI she traveled to the western front in Belgium and France bringing relief supplies to hospitals and refugees. If there is any part that lost my interest it was the extensive list of names she references with her English and French literary circles. Her books ends:

Life is the saddest thing there is, next to death; yet there are always new countries to see, new books to read (and, I hope to write), a thousand little daily wonders to marvel at and rejoice in.... The visible is a daily miracle for those who have eyes and ears; and I still worm my hands thankfully by the old fire, through every year it is fed with the dry wood of more memories. ( )

I found this book in the mailroom in my building, and even though I read Ethan Frome in high school and loathed it, I was a little bit curious about Edith Wharton, whose American home "The Mount" in Lenox, MA I had toured.

At first I was put off by her privileged childhood, and not sure the book was worth the time. I persevered, and was rewarded. Her writing is so clear, obvious from her rendering of her writing process, description of many friends, and life in New York, Lenox, England and France.

I went through the book with a heavy highlighter. I learned that in her New York social circle, leisure was the expected occupation, and her family and friends never mentioned any of her writings, as if it was an embarrassment. Nor did they discuss anyone else's books. They were not readers at all, and she was quite an anomaly.

Her family was so disturbed at her bookishness that they scheduled her debut at 17. After she married, at 23, she and her husband began to travel, and Edith found her own society.

She discusses her writing process in the chapter "Secret Garden." Although I don't write fiction, I have always been curious about how different writers do it, and her description was fascinating.

There is a chapter about Henry James, a lifelong friend of hers. She has a great admiration for him and his writing, but in describing some of his interactions with others, she revealed him as a rather nasty critic who could dish it out but couldn't take it himself, though she doesn't seem to see it that way. To me, who has enjoyed several of his books, he seems a rather petty and particular old bachelor.

During WWI, she was living in France, and very involved in supporting the war effort. I would have liked to read more about that.

It surprised me that her most famous and popular novel, The Age of Innocence, was written after the end of the war, in a period when she was recuperating from the effects of living through the war. The Age of Innocence was set in an old New York of her youth, a world that no longer existed. Perhaps time and distance had distilled that world for her, perhaps looking back shielded her from thinking about the horrors of the war in France.

And now I am eager to read some of her novels. ( )

don't quite know what to say about this. almost nothing about her personal life which one usually expects a memoir to be about. lots of travelling, friends--mostly men. i don't really enjoy wharton's fiction so why would i enjoy this? this book is not in any of the memoir books i have??? ( )

Edith Wharton writes with humility, despite being born into a wealthy family and achieving literary success during her lifetime. She writes with grace, choosing not to divulge details of an unhappy marriage and divorce. She writes with wit and candor of her travels and many friendships that enriched her life.

It is fitting that Edith Wharton chose the title for her autobiography from the words of Walt Whitman, a man she much admired: “So here I sit gossiping in the early candle-light of old age--I and my book--casting backward glances over our travel’d road.” I’m so glad Mrs. Wharton was able to look backward from the vantage point of her 70-plus years when she wrote this autobiography to share the many experiences that influenced her writing over the course of her journey through life. ( )

This is more of a literary memoir than an autobiography, although definitely worthy of a read by anyone who enjoys Wharton's fiction. The book traces the earliest beginnings of young Edith's desire to create stories and goes on to describe her growing friendships with other authors, extensive travels, active social life, and publication successes.

Wharton has a wealth of anecdotes about her friends and acquaintances, but little to say about herself or her personal life. Her husband is mentioned in no more than five sentences in the entire book. Not to be missed, however, is a fat section on Henry James in both his middle and older years.

The book really ends at World War I. There is some general commentary on the hardships of the war and some complaints about the coarseness of "the modern world," but nothing of any substance. ( )