The Age of Innocence Centennial Celebration Moves Online

The Mount, Edith Wharton’s Home is continuing its centennial celebration of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence with a schedule of online conversations with leading Wharton scholars and contemporary writers. The programs focus on the cultural relevance of Wharton’s novel and will focus on why the novel still resonates 100 years after its original publication. All online events are free and will be streamed via Zoom. Registration is required.

The Age of Innocence is Edith Wharton’s twelfth novel, initially serialized in four parts in the Pictorial Review magazine in 1920, and later released by D. Appleton and Company as a book in New York and London. It won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Wharton the first woman to win the prize. In honor of the centennial The Mount recently launched their first-ever online exhibit, Writing The Age of Innocence, which follows Edith Wharton’s creative process, as she turned rough notes into the finished novel. The exhibit features photographs of her manuscript.

PROGRAM INFORMATION

RESEARCHING THE AGE OF INNOCENCE 

Wednesday, July 1, 4:00 p.m.

Anne Schuyler, Director of Interpretation & Visitor Services and Nicholas Hudson, Curatorial Assistant, share insights from their research in preparation for the centennial celebration of Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. 

100 YEARS OF INNOCENCE: A CONVERSATION WITH ARIELLE ZIBRAK AND SARAH BLACKWOOD

July 9 at 4:00 p.m.

Authors and Wharton scholars Arielle Zibrak and Sarah Blackwood will discuss changing reactions to The Age of Innocence over the last 100 years.

TELLING TWO STORIES WITH ELIF BATUMAN AND JENNIFER HAYTOCK

August 6, 4:00 PM

Author Elif Batuman and Wharton scholar Jennifer Haytock will share how their own multiple readings of The Age of Innocence have informed their understanding of social norms, class and privilege, from Wharton’s old New York through today.