Introduction: Edith Wharton's Ecological Consciousness

Abstract

In 1920 Wharton would write from her Hyères garden, “I have always been more deeply sylvan, & horti & agri & all the rest of it, than anything else, & now the flowers & birds & woods literally ‘fill the room up’ of oh, so many absent friends” (Lee 557). The comforts of Wharton’s garden, her knowledge of it, and her long-term habit of cultivating the natural world all emerge in this statement, which also anthropomorphizes aspects of nature as human companions. As this introduction to this special issue of The Edith Wharton Review suggests, Wharton’s enthusiasm for natural environments led her to champion gardens and natural vistas; this interest, moreover, gestures toward significant facets of ecological thinking. We see signs of Wharton’s “sylvan” and “horti” and “agri” self emerge across her oeuvre, and those characteristics form the basis for the articles collected here, in which an increasing clarity of ecological thought emerges around natural issues, often in unexpected ways. We can find an example of Wharton’s attention to natural systems in her poem “In the Forest,” in which she focuses on two plant species that scientists today recognize as playing vital roles in the ecology of the North American continent: the violet and the oak. In Wharton’s poem, these plants engage in a dialogue about each’s perception of the world as the oak asks: