Wharton’s first major published work was a work of non-fiction, co-authored with Ogden Codman, Jr., a young architect and interior designer from Boston. He had worked on her house in Newport, Land’s End, and the two of them decided to write the book together. A reaction against the dark rooms and overstuffed furniture of Victorian fashion, they advocated a return to classic symmetry, harmony with nature, and practicality. Four years later when she designed The Mount, she would rely on the principles espoused in this book.
Writing The Decoration of Houses also resulted in a renewed friendship with Walter Berry, who, on the occasion of his death, she would claim was the love of her life. A well-connected lawyer, Berry was an astute critic and according to Wharton his comments on drafts of The Decoration of Houses “taught whatever I know about the writing of clear concise English.”
Published in December 1897