Edith Newbold Wharton was an American writer and designer born in New York City in 1862. She drew upon her insider's knowledge of upper-class New York society to portray, realistically, the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. Wharton achieved significant recognition for her literary work. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she received for her novel The Age of Innocence. Her other well-known works include The House of Mirth, the novella Ethan Frome, and several notable ghost stories. Wharton's contributions to American literature were recognized long after her death in 1937, when she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1996.