Hauntings at The Mount

As a prelude to the "Ghost Hunters" March 25 episode, which will feature The Mount, we wanted to post a story from Capital News 9 in Albany which aired last Hallowe'en. Ryan Burgess interviews staff members who relate some of their spooky experiences. You can see the trailer for the new season of "Ghost Hunters" here.

Both staff and visitors, as well as people who once lived in the house, either when it was a school, or when it housed Shakespeare & Co., have reported many strange, inexplicable sounds and feelings. Your blogger is not sensitive to these things, something which she has always regretted. But now, since she spends quite a lot of time alone in the Mansion, she is beginning to think that it is a good thing!

If any of our readers have spooky stories to relate, please pass them on and we will post them. After all, Mrs. Wharton herself loved a good ghost story. "For the ghost should never be allowed to forget that his only chance of survival is in the tales of those who have encountered him ... "

Get your votes in now!!

Just a reminder that tomorrow is the deadline for voting for the new state quarter. All supporters of The Mount should now be suffering from repetitive strain injury resulting from continuous voting on the state's website. If you have not yet had a diagnosis of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome there is no reason not to keep voting! As the great diva Beverly Sills once said
"You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try."

Two awards offered by The Edith Wharton Society

The Edith Wharton Society has posted details of two awards for Wharton scholars on their website.

The Edith Wharton Collection Research Award gives financial assistance for reasearch at the Beinecke Library at Yale. The Edith Wharton Essay Prize is awarded annually for the best unpublished essay on Edith Wharton by a beginning scholar. For more information about these, about the Society, and about Edith Wharton and her works, visit their website.

Miles Huddleston

The Mount is sad to hear of the death of Miles Huddleston, book publisher and bibliophile. While working at the U.K. publishing house Constable (now Constable and Robinson) he was responsible for the reissue of Edith Wharton's works. Wharton's literary reputation had suffered in the years after her death, particularly in 1947, when Percy Lubbock (an ostensible friend) published his "Portrait of Edith Wharton" which, to quote Hermione Lee (Wharton's most recent biographer), made Wharton "sound like the character played by Margaret Dumont in the Marx Brothers films."

Constable's decision to reprint her works was in no small measure responsible for the restoration of her reputation, and we thank Miles Huddleston for his championship of her work. Here is his obituary in The Guardian.

Edith Wharton's dogs

In honor of the Westminster Dog Show, we decided to post photographs of some of the many dogs that Edith Wharton owned and loved throughout her life. Always a passionate animal lover, she supported many animal charities, including helping to set up the S.P.C.A. in its early days in the United States. Most of the photographs are held in the Edith Wharton Collection at the Beinecke Library at Yale. The second photograph (we don't yet know this dog's name) was taken on the terrace at The Mount by either Edith or Teddy Wharton.

EW with Mouton and Sprite


On The Mount's terrace

Mitou, Miza and Nicette

The Mount on a quarter?

According to this article on iBerkshires the US mint is planning on issuing new state quarters, and this time they will feature national parks and historic sites in each state. There are 17 sites in the Berkshires up for consideration, and The Mount is one of them! The rules state that "citizens can vote for any of the 114 sites selected by the state; you can vote as many times as you wish but for only one site at a time." Voting closes on Thursday, Feb. 26, at 5 p.m. If you want to see Edith Wharton's home immortalized as legal tender, visit the Massachusetts state website and cast your vote for The Mount! Don't forget the old adage "vote early and vote often!"

Wharton lecture at the Met

Those of you who find yourselves in New York City on May 13 may be interested in attending David Garrard Lowe's lecture at the Metropolitain Museum of Art. Entitled Edith Wharton: A Pilgrimage to France— The Rue Varenne and a House in the Country it is part of their series American Writers Abroad. The lecture begins at 11:00 a.m.

The Big Read at Massillon Museum, Ohio

(Wharton fans near Massillion Ohio appear to be in for a treat. Thanks to Ms. Corwin for bringing this to our attention.)

Hello to everyone at The Mount

I am excited to be looking forward to our community participation in The National Endowment for the Arts Big Read, when we will be reading and discussing The Age of Innocence and celebrating the life of Edith Wharton. The Massillon Museum and The Massillon Public Library will be having book discussion groups and I will be hosting one of the book discussions here at my new tea room, The Amherst Rose.

Events include The Gilded Age Ball, the Victorian Parlor, showings at our local theater of The House of Mirth, In Love and War, and The Age of Innocence, one-act plays at our local high school, and a program on Victorian Etiquette at our local historic home, Five Oaks There will also be a symposium at Kent State University - Stark County Campus.

For more information you can view the events at the web site for The Massillon Museum at
www.massillonmuseum.org

Please join us in celebrating the Big Read and The Age of Innocence. The Gilded Age Ball will be the first event on February 28th.

Mary Jane Corwin

The Amherst Rose and Palour Gift Shoppe
937 Amherst Road NE
Massillon OH 44646
330-832-8502
tea@amherstrose.com
www.amherstrose.com