New York City

The metropolis of New York City is located at the East Coast of the United States, in south-eastern New York State, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The five boroughs of the metropolis - Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island - are in fact a diverse melting pot of cultures and ethnicities. Therefore, moving from one of the city’s boroughs to the next could be like moving from one country to another. The area of the city encompasses 790 square kilometers (305 square miles). No other city has contributed more images to the collective consciousness of the American people: the Wall Street represents finance, Broadway stands for theatre and the Fifth Avenue is synonymous with shopping. Furthermore, New York City is the most international and most populous city in the United States.[1] In July 2013, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that the population of the metropolis is 8,405,837.[2]

In 1930, roughly the time “All Souls’” is set, the population was, according to the Census Bureau, 6,930,446.[3] Five years earlier, in 1925, New York City was ranked as the most populous city in the world.[4] As the growing population displays, New York City has traditionally been the entrance gate for the waves of mass immigration to the U.S. In 1929, the city was the core of the stock market crash that led to the Great Depression, which effected the following decades. As a consequence of the Great Depression the reformer Fiorello La Guardia was elected mayor and led the city through this difficult time. Although the Great Depression affected the economy, some of the tallest skyscrapers of the world were nonetheless constructed during the 1930s in New York City. Examples are the Empire State Building or the Chrysler Building.[5]

Although Edith Wharton spent the last 25 years of her life in Europe, she was born in New York, as Edith Newbold Jones, on January 24, 1862. There, she lived as child and adolescent. The family of Edith Wharton lived off investments from the mercantile fortunes, made by their forebears. Therefore, she grew up in a world of luxury, including servants and carriages. Because of the negative economic consequences of the Civil War for the Joneses, they took the four year old Edith and her 16 year old brother Harry to Europe for six years. When they returned in 1872, Edith perceived the city of New York as ugly and was disappointed by it.[6]

The George Frederic Jones home, birthplace of Edith Wharton:

Source: Sara Bird Wright, Edith Wharton A to Z. The Essential Guide to the Life & Work (New York: Roundhouse, 1999), 182.

[1] George Lankevich, Encyclopedia Britannica. New York, United States, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/412352/New-York-City (accessed March 24, 2015).

[2] U.S. Census Bureau, Current Estimates of New York City’s Population for July 2014, http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/census/popcur.shtml (accessed March 24, 2015).

[3] U.S. Census Bureau, Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places: 1930, https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027/tab16.txt (accessed March 24, 2015).

[4] Matt T. Rosenberg, Largest Cities Through History, http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa011201a.htm (accessed March 24, 2015).

[5] Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cities, “New York,” encyclopedia.com. http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/New_York.aspx (accessed March 24, 2015).

[6] Sara Bird Wright, Edith Wharton A to Z. The Essential Guide to the Life & Work (New York: Roundhouse, 1999), 181 – 182.