On 18th of April 1916, Edith Wharton, was appointed Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, France’s highest award, for her contribution to the war effort.

Edith Wharton is considered to be one of America’s greatest writers. Author of The Age of Innocence, Ethan Frome, and The House of Mirth, she wrote over 40 books in 40 years.

She was the first woman awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Yale University, and a full membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Edith Wharton

By the First World War Edith Wharton had become a very successful and rich woman. Reporting from Belgium she was one of the few who was allowed at the front lines.

Wharton established workrooms for unemployed seamstresses, convalescent homes for tuberculosis sufferers, hostels for refugees, and schools for children fleeing war-torn Belgium.

It was for her war work the Edith Wharton received the French Legion of Honour.