Lenox, Mount to Celebrate Edith Wharton's Birthday

The Mount isn't very busy when it's covered in snow, but this Saturday, Jan. 24, a daylong celebration of Edith Wharton's birthday and reading will start in the Lenox mansion.

LENOX, Mass. — Edith Wharton would have turned 153 years old this Saturday, Jan. 24. In a happy coincidence, Jan. 24 is also National Readathon Day. How could such a pairing not spark a creative mid-winter event?

The Mount, Edith Wharton's home in Lenox, is joining with Lenox businesses and organizations in hosting a day of literary appreciation on Jan. 24. The festivities will include dramatic readings, raffles and refreshments at three of Lenox's leading literary hubs: The Mount, the Lenox Library, and The Bookstore. Each location will celebrate the joy of reading and a love of books, two of Wharton's lifelong "ruling passions."

"January is a pretty quiet month for us," said Kelsey Mullen, The Mount's director of public programming and education, who added that they always try to mark Wharton's birthday somehow. "This was a really innovative way to acknowledge it this year."

The birthday events will begin at The Mount with bagels and a bookshare at 10 a.m. Guests are encouraged to bring their favorite books and join in conversation with other literary types as they dine on bagels from Bagels & Brew and pastries from Patisserie Lenox. At 10:30 a.m., professional actors will perform a dramatic reading of Dennis Krausnik's adaptation of Wharton's "Xingu," a story about literature's most pretentious book club. A toast to Edith will follow — complete with birthday cake, of course. Tickets for breakfast and the reading are $10.

Edith Wharton's birthday — and her love of reading — will be celebrated in Lenox this Saturday, Jan. 24.

Mullen said "Xingu" shows a different side of Wharton than people might expect. 

"It shows how really funny her writing can be," she said.

Then, from 12:30 to 4 p.m., the Lenox Library on Main Street will be honoring Wharton's birthday by participating in the first-ever National Readathon, a joint initiative from the National Book Foundation, GoodReads, Mashable and Penguin Random House. The Lenox Readathon will kick off with an excerpt from "Flight Behavior" by Barbara Kingsolver, this year's Lenox Reads title. Afterward, readers can find a quiet corner to curl up with a book of their choice and a blanket borrowed from MacKimmie Co., to "read the day away," said Grace Leathrum, The Mount's Special Events coordinator, who spearheaded the event.

"People are just going to cozy up and read," Leathrum said.

The library will also hold a raffle of several of gift certificates donated by Lenox businesses in the afternoon. The proceeds from the raffle will go to The National Book Foundation to benefit early literacy programs.

The celebration's final stop will be The Bookstore on Housatonic Street, where visitors can enjoy a selection of poems starting at 4:30 p.m. While the selected poems were being kept under wraps, they all will have one thing in common, Mullen said.

"They're reading poetry — about reading," she said.

Wharton's love of reading inspired her to write more than 40 books in her lifetime. 

"Reading aloud was a favorite activity at the friendly get-togethers Wharton held at The Mount," said Susan Wissler, The Mount's executive director. "We're thrilled to collaborate with our literary neighbors in Lenox to fete Wharton in the same way 100 years later."

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