Trip to "The Mount" - Home of Edith Wharton

Wendy Tarlow Kaplan, a respected independent curator, whose esteemed credits span from assistant curator at both the Harvard Fogg Museum & Museum Fine Arts Boston, gave the following address and thanks to the staff at The Mount, as well as a hearty welcome to the Devenish Group.

What a joy to welcome you all to this land of plenty, created under the visionary eye of Edith Wharton.

She wrote in The Backward Glance, "The visible world is a daily miracle for those who have eyes and ears.”

First, I want to acknowledge our own visionary, Louise Devenish, who brings to every activity that she plans extraordinary energy and devilishness.

Under her wing are her cohorts/interns Therese, Donna and myself, Wendy the Elder. But all the programming at The Mount could not have happened without the good graces and encouragement of Susan Wissler, Director of The Mount, who brought it back to life after years of neglect; and her very competent and dedicated staff, Anne Schuyler, Nynke Dorhout, and Nick Hudson.

What is extraordinary about Edith Wharton is that as a serious and industrious young woman, she embraced the discipline of writing, which began in this very home, writing novels and her own poetry.

In fact, this year marks the 100th anniversary of her receiving the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. What a remarkable achievement to be the first woman given this honor, in a largely male category, for The Age of Innocence written in 1920. Among her 10 other published books are: The House of Mirth, The Custom of the Country, Ethan Frome, and Hudson River Bracketed.

In conclusion, I’d like to read you a poem which shows her great sympathy to American soldiers fighting for France and America in World War I.

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