Edith Wharton (Edith Newbold Jones, January 24, 1862 - August 11, 1937), was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer. Wharton combined her insider's view of America's privileged classes with a brilliant, natural wit to write humorous, incisive novels and short stories of social and psychological insight. In addition to novels, Wharton wrote at least 85 short stories. She was also a garden designer, interior designer, and taste-maker of her time. The Age of Innocence (1920) won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for literature, making Wharton the first woman to win the award. She died of a stroke in 1937 at the age of 75.