Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
The novel makes it sound as if Central Park was just an undeveloped rural area, but it was not. Almost 1,600 people lived there in shanties, and Seneca Village, an African-American settlement that included churches and schools, was on Eighth Avenue and 82nd Street. All of these people had to be displaced in order for the park to be built.
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Gossip Girl, the popular prime-time soap, was modeled on The Age of Innocence. (Source)
From 1909 on, Edith Wharton was a permanent resident of Paris. She earned a Cross of the Legion of Honor from France for her assistance to refugees during World War I.
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