Ethan Frome. First edition, first printing (with “wearily” unbroken on page 135). NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911. Hardcover, 5 x 7.75, 195 pages. Not signed by Wharton, but bearing an ownership notation in another hand on the first free end page, “Helen Mole, Dec 25, 1911.” Book condition: VG+/None. Wharton used Ethan Frome as a strict departure from her normal inspections of the American upper crust, crafting a timeless ode to naturalism with her harsh depiction of the town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, and the connection shared between its inhabitants and the unforgiving New England landscape.
