Description

ORIGINAL FRENCH EDITION by ETHAN FROME, one of the author's masterpieces.
ONE OF 20 NUMBERED COPIES ON HOLLANDE PAPER, only large paper.

The book was published in English in New York in 1911 by Charles Scribner's Sons, under the title Ethan Frome. But the origin of what was to become this great news story was a study paper written in French with a teacher found by Charles du Bos.
The French edition is, however, a translation of which Wharton had published extracts in the Revue des deux Mondes before the present volume edition. Plon does not indicate a translator and, according to Hermione Lee, the translation was done by several people, Wharton, Dubos and her teacher.

L'copy contains an autograph letter signed by Edith Wharton dated Sunday 29 [November ? 1914] and addressed to André Chaumeix director of the Journal des Débats :

" Dear Mr Chaumeix, 
I am sure that you will agree to include in the Débats this painter's note on the sale that I am to hold at my home in aid of the admirable work of the Foyer Franco-Belge, and the "American Asylum Houses for Refugees" that I have just organised with a few compatriots. They have kindly given me some delightful items for my sale, and I hope you will tell everyone to come and see them. 
Thank you in advance, and please accept my best wishes. 
Edith Wharton. 
I only learned yesterday that Madame Chaumeix had returned. Would you remind me of her, and tell her that I hope to see her soon?"

In November 1914, Edith Wharton organised the "American Hostels for Refugees" with Mrs. Roysll Tyler under the direction of the American Red Cross and in collaboration with Foyer Franco-Belge. She organised several sales in aid of these organisations and also published a collective work in 1916,  The Book of the Homeless, bringing together contributions - poems, essays and musical scores in French and English - by artists and writers such as Maurice Barrès, Sarah Bernhardt, Paul Claudel, Jean Cocteau, Joseph Conrad, Vincent d'Indy, Thomas Hardy; Henry James, Edmond Rostand, Igor Stravinsky and W. B. Yeats.

This is a copy in a fine embroidered silk binding, whose white, vaporous flowers echo the landscapes of the novel.