Queer-Eye Tour of Edith Wharton's The Mount (Lenox, MA)

Edith Wharton was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose estate in Lenox, MA was inspired by her ideas on interior design and passion for gardens. This tour provides the opportunity to view books in her library by authors of interest to the queer community and learn about Wharton’s circle of "creative" friends, including Henry James, Morton Fullerton, Ogden Codman, Jr., Janet Flanner, poet Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, and many others.

TICKETS: You must buy your tickets directly from the Mount using this website link:

Some modern scholars believe Edith Wharton may have had lesbian affairs, including one with writer Janet Flanner, and she was friends with Teddy Roosevelt's bisexual sister, poet Corinne Roosevelt Robinson (Stern, Keith (2009-09-01). She had an affair with a bisexual journalist, Morton Fullerton, and had many friends who we now would certainly consider to be somewhat "queer" in their expression of gender, sexual or affectional orientation. She certainly enjoyed and was inspired by her many dandy friends throughout her life.

"Wharton’s circle in Paris included many homosexual and bisexual men, an aspect of the novelist’s web of personal associations that long has been noted. With R. W. B. Lewis’s 1975 biography, the first study of Wharton to consider the paramount role of Morton Fullerton in her romantic life, there might have emerged a new interest in the subject of homosexual relations as they relate to Wharton’s fiction. But despite Lewis’s frankness in dealing with the novelist’s affair with Fullerton, scholars of Wharton’s writing have given little attention to questions of same-sex eroticism, particularly in France, where Wharton resided for three decades. It is as if the inexplicable but crucial connection between the homosexual social context of Wharton’s Paris and the indecisive males of the author’s fiction requires acknowledgement but defies existing analytical categories. Cynthia Griffin Wolff observes, pointing to Henry James, Fullerton, and Howard Sturgis, that “many of [Wharton’s] closest friends were men whose sexual preferences tended to blur."

-- Richard A. Kaye, "Edith Wharton and the "New Gomorrahs" of Paris: Homosexuality, Flirtation, and Incestuous Desire in The Reef" Johns Hopkins University Press

PARKING & LOGISTICS: General parking is near the entrance across from the historic Stable, while Accessible parking is down the driveway at the Main House. Photos inside the
house are allowed, but please use no flash. Food and beverage are available for purchase at The Mount’s Terrace Café.    

CARPOOLING/RIDE-SHARE: Carpooling is a great way to get to know other men, save money on gas, and help to reduce your carbon footprint and save the planet. If you need a ride or are open to carpooling, please indicate that when you are registering, & our ride coordinator will try to match you with people nearby who are interested in carpooling or offering rides.

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