Edith Wharton became the first woman to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1921. She was honoured for her work writing novels and short stories, particularly The Age of Innocence.

Though The Age of Innocence was published in 1920, it was set in the 1870s, and depicted the lives of upper-class New Yorkers. Wharton carefully detailed the customs, morals and attitudes of the time, examining an upper-class couple's upcoming nuptials, and the obstacles and scandal they face.

Wharton wrote over a dozen other novels, published many volumes of short stories, and even dabbled in poetry and non-fiction (she specialized in garden and interior design).

In addition to her Pulitzer Prize win, Wharton was also the first woman to be awarded an honourary degree from Yale.

Wharton's legacy lives also lives on in casual conversation; the phrase "keeping up with the Joneses'" is thought to orginate from her description of her father's family (whose surname was Jones).

Like L.M. Montgomery, Wharton accomplished an incredible amount in her lifetime, despite issues in her personal life, and the general inequalities women of her era faced.