The paradigm writer-decorator is, of course, Edith
Wharton, whose handbook on design and essay on taste,
The Decoration of Houses, co-authored with architect
Ogden
Codman,
Jr., was published in
1899, two years before
Wharton purchased
113 acres in Lenox,
Massachusetts and
commenced building
and decorating her
own
house,
The
Mount, modeled on
Sir Christopher Wren's
Belton
House
in
Lincolnshire. Revolting
against the ostentation
of the Newport, Rhode
Island mansions she
was used to, Wharton
"designed a house for
privacy rather than
show, a house for
her to write in, and to entertain her small circle of close
friends," which included Henry James and Bernard
Berenson. Here is McClatchy's description of The
Mount and Wharton's writerly reasons for its particular
architectural configuration:
HYLAND
