Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and designer. Nominated three times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, she received the Pulitzer Prize for The Age of Innocence in 1921. Wharton drew upon her privileged social position to create witty and psychologically insightful novels and short stories. Ogden Codman, Jr. (1863-1951) was a noted American architect and interior decorator in the Beaux-Arts tradition. His many famous designs include Wharton's residences Land's End and The Mount as well as her Park Avenue townhouse; the Vanderbilts' Newport home, The Breakers; and the Codman-Davis House in Washington, D.C.