Bess Hochstein reports from Lenox. If Edith Wharton were still alive, she’d be celebrating her 150th birthday this year. And she’d have found fine companionship on the terrace of The Mount, her Lenox estate, on the hazy evening of Sunday, July 15, where bibliophiles and others gathered to toast the efforts of the National Committee, chaired by former First Lady Laura Bush and packed with leading literary lights and political pashas, that has been formed to celebrate the 150th anniversary of her birth. During the evening, Gordon Travers (in photo, left, with executive director Susan Wissler and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick) announced that he will be stepping down from his seat as board chair of The Mount, and that sheep farmer Lila Berle will step up to take his place. But that transition will not take place until after this year’s Berkshire WordFest, which takes place from September 14 – 16.
Delight Dudyk, Paul Dudyk, and Lila Berle; realtor Nancy Kalodner and Malinka Jackson.
Children's book authors Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce flank Betsy Lee Workman; Karen Carhart and Christopher Owen.
Patricia Ellis and Joel Ellis; Gordon Hyatt and Carole Hyatt.
Smitty Pignatelli, Catherine Taylor-Williams, Roselle Chartock, and Alan Chartock.
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Matteline deVries-Dilling, founder of Lite Brite Neon, one of the evening's honoree of this year's Upstate Benefit adresses the gala from the Caboose's caboose.
- Karen Pearson. Courtesy Art Omi.
Olana senior vice president and landscape curatorMark Prezorski, president Sean Sawyer, The evenings honoree Kristin Gamble and New York State Assemblymember Didi Barrett.
- Oxygen House Photo
