The Valley of DecisionWharton was born to George Frederic Jones and Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander in New York City. She had two much older brothers, Frederic Rhinelander and Henry Edward. She was baptized April 20, 1862, Easter Sunday, at Grace Church.[2] To her friends and family she was known as "Pussy Jones."[3] The saying "keeping up with the Joneses" is said to refer to her father's family.[4] She was also related to the Rensselaer family, the most prestigious of the old patroon families. She had a lifelong friendship with her Rhinelander niece, landscape architect Beatrix Farrand of Reef Point in Bar Harbor, Maine. Wharton was born during the Civil War, which is the reason the family traveled throughout Europe.[5] From 1866 to 1872, the Jones family traveled in France, Italy, Germany, and Spain.[6] Along with English, she was fluent in French, German, and Italian. When Wharton was ten years old, she suffered from typhoid fever while the family was at a spa in the Black Forest. She was not impressed with New York when the family came back to the United States when she was 10.[2] After the family returned to the United States in 1872, they spent their winters in New York and their summers in Newport, Rhode Island.[6] While her family was in Europe, she was educated by tutors and governesses. She rejected the standards of fashion and etiquette that were expected of women at the time, intended to enable women to marry well and to be able to be well displayed at balls and parties. She thought these requirements were superficial and oppressive. Wharton wanted more education than she received, so she read from her father's library and from the libraries of her father's friends.[7] Her mother forbade her to read novels until she was married, and Edith complied with this command. |