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Dear Edith Wharton Society members,
We are working on a paper on Wharton's ekphrastic poetry for the Florence conference. According to Louis Auchincloss's introduction to the Selected Poems, 'The Last Token' was 'inspired by an academic painting of a Christian girl in the Roman arena about to be devoured by big cats and clutching a flower tossed to her by her lover safely esconced with the audience above'.
Can anyone identify this painting for us?
Many thanks
Dr David Kennedy / Senior Lecturer in English & Creative Writing, University of Hull, UK
Christine Kennedy / Independent scholar |
"The Last Token," if Auchincloss is correct, may be based on a painting that is now owned by the Metropolitan Museum by Gabriel Max. It seems to have been owned by Catharine Lorillard Wolfe at the time when Edith Jones would have written the poem. The Jones family knew Miss Wolfe, but it is more likely that they saw the painting when it was hung at the Centennial Loan Collection at the National Academy of Design in 1876.
Here's a link to the Met catalog page.
http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/110001491
Irene Goldman-Price
*****
Not sure if this is the painting you are looking for…here is the link.
http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/110001491
Sincerely,
Mary Jo McClain |
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I'm currently conducting some research into Edith Wharton and was wondering if you could help me. I'm trying to find out whether she was the first woman to drive through France in the early twentieth century, and if she wasn't, do you have any idea who was?
Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!
C Roper |
Mary Alsop King Waddington did some driving through France and also published a book about it in 1908, _Chateau and Country Life in France_ (Scribner’s). In her narrative, she describes various automobile excursions. Wharton was driving through France in 1906-1908, though, so may still pre-date Waddington (I don’t know when Waddington undertook her travels).
Best,
Gary Totten |
I'm currently working on a piece on The Custom of the Country and Wharton's "misogyny." I've been unable to locate any post-commentary on Janet Malcolm's 1986 "The Woman Who Hated Women." I was wondering if anyone might be aware of a print conversation generated by the piece, specifically something to which Malcolm herself responded? Thanks for your help.
> All best,
> Arielle Zibrak
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Hi, I wonder if you might have the info on the relationship between Edith and Lillian Livingston Jones; I believe they were cousins. I cannot find a site better than this one I don't believe. Many thanks for any assisitance, Katharyn Remsen Aroneau |
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