Writers' portraits - Edith Wharton

    Edith Wharton was born on this day in 1862 and here she is aged eight, painted by Edward Harrison May.

    A couple of Wharton quotations:

"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."

"The creative imagination can make a little go a long way ..."

    As to her books, I've still read only Ethan Frome and The House of Mirth (with the book group), but what of The Age of Innocence which won the Pulitzer Prize - is that her masterpiece?