A Backward Glance by Edith Wharton

6.1..

The doing of "The Decoration of Houses" amused me very much, but can hardly be regarded as a part of my literary career. That began with the publishing, in "Scribner's Magazine," of two or three short stories. The first was called "Mrs. Manstey's View," the second "The Fullness of Life." Both attracted attention, and gave me the pleasant flutter incidental to first seeing one's self in print; but they brought me no nearer to other workers in the same field. I continued to live my old life, for my husband was as fond of society as ever, and I knew of no other existence, except in our annual escapes to Italy. I had as yet no real personality of my own, and was not to acquire one till my first volume of short stories was published--and that was not until 1899. This volume, called "The Greater Inclination," contained none of my earlier tales, all of which I had rejected as not worth reprinting. I had gone on working hard at the nouvelle form, and the stories making up my first volume were chosen after protracted consultations with Walter Berry, the friend who had shown me how to put "The Decoration of Houses" into shape. From that day until his death, twenty-seven years later, through all his busy professional life, he followed each of my literary steps with the same patient interest, and I doubt if a beginner in the art ever had a sterner yet more stimulating guide.