{{short description|American writer}} {{Infobox writer | name = Edith Wherry Muckleston | image = Edith Wherry, photo by Eva Watson Schütze (c1903).png | image_size = | image_upright = | landscape = <!-- yes, if wide image, otherwise leave blank --> | alt = 20th-century B&W portrait photo of a young woman wearing a dark dress. | caption = Wherry photo by Eva Watson-Schütze c. 1903 | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pseudonym = | birth_name = Edith Wherry | birth_date = October 10, 1876 | birth_place = Carlisle, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date = April 7, 1961 | death_place = Claremont, California, U.S. | occupation = Writer | alma_mater = University of California, Berkeley | genre = Mostly novels | subject = China | notable_works = ''The Red Lantern'' | spouse = {{marriage|Harold Struan Muckleston|1911}} | children = 3 }} '''Edith Wherry''' (after marriage, '''Muckleston'''; 1876-1961) was an American writer. She published four novels set in China where she lived with her missionary parents until she reached her teen years. The film, ''The Red Lantern'', with Alla Nazimova in the lead role, was based on Wherry's novel of the same name.
==Early life and education== Edith Margaret Wherry was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on October 10, 1876.<ref name="Progress-Bull1961">{{cite news |title=Funeral Set Tomorrow For Mrs. Muckleston |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/progress-bulletin-funeral-set-tomorrow-f/184122215/ |access-date=1 November 2025 |work=Progress-Bulletin |date=10 April 1961 |page=10 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}</ref> Her parents were Rev. Dr. John Wherry and Sara Ellen Brandon, both of Pekin, China.<ref name="WhoswhoinCanada1922" /> Edith had five siblings, including brothers Elmer and John Frederic.<ref name="Folsom1925" />
Her parents were missionaries on furlough in Carlisle when Edith was born, but the family returned to China afterwards,<ref name="Progress-Bull1961" /> where she learned to speak the Chinese language fluently.<ref name="Folsom1925">{{cite book |last1=Folsom |first1=Joseph Fulford |last2=Fitzpatrick |first2=Benedict |last3=Conklin |first3=Edwin P. |title=The Municipalities of Essex County, New Jersey, 1666-1924 |year=1925 |publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Incorporated |location=New York |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ACgXAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA288 |access-date=1 November 2025 |language=en |edition=Public domain}}</ref> The father was engaged for more than 55 years<ref name="LAEve1921">{{cite news |title=Early Impressions Left. Mrs. Edith Wherry Retains Memory of Ancient Chinese Surroundings |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-evening-citizen-news-early-i/184122413/ |access-date=1 November 2025 |work=Los Angeles Evening Citizen News |date=12 August 1921 |page=8 |via=Newspapers.com |edition=Public domain}} {{open access}}</ref> in missionary work in the Orient under the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions.<ref name="TheSFExaminer1910">{{cite news |title=Miss Edith Wherry, Young Novelist |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner-miss-edith-wh/184122278/ |access-date=1 November 2025 |work=The San Francisco Examiner |date=26 November 1910 |page=3 |via=Newspapers.com |edition=Public domain}} {{open access}}</ref> He translated the Bible into classical literary Chinese.<ref name="PublicOpinion1919">{{cite news |title=Obituary for John Wherry |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/public-opinion-obituary-for-john-wherry/133685569/?locale=en-US |access-date=1 November 2025 |work=Public Opinion |date=9 January 1919 |location=Chambersburg |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com |edition=Public domain}} {{open access}}</ref>
Edith returned to the U.S. as a teenager to pursue her education,<ref name="Progress-Bull1961" /> which included Trenton Model School (New Jersey) and High School in Westfield, New Jersey. She attended Wellesley College (1898-1900), Stanford University (1900-1901),<ref name="orbiscascade">{{cite web |title=Edith Wherry Muckleston papers - Archives West |url=https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv20214 |website=archiveswest.orbiscascade.org |access-date=1 November 2025 |archive-date=26 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240226200438/https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv20214 |url-status=live }}</ref> and University of California, Berkeley (graduated in 1907). At the University of Paris (1904-1906),<ref name="WhoswhoinCanada1922" /> she was under the instruction of Madeleine Rolland.<ref name="Progress-Bull1961" />
==Career== thumb|Wherry in 1910 She taught French at Mills College (1908-1909),<ref name="WhoswhoinCanada1922" /> and then returned to France before traveling to Quebec in August 1911,<ref name="Progress-Bull1961" /> where she married Harold Struan Muckleston, M.D., son of Rev. Canon W. J. Muckleston, of Ottawa, Ontario on August 23rd.<ref name="TheDailyStandard1911">{{cite news |title=The marriage of |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-standard-the-marriage-of/184124204/ |access-date=1 November 2025 |work=The Daily Standard |date=26 August 1911 |location=Kingston |page=3 |via=Newspapers.com |edition=Public domain}} {{open access}}</ref> After marriage, they resided for a time in Montreal.<ref name="Dragma1911" /> The couple had three daughters,<ref name="orbiscascade" /> including Eleanor and Margaret.<ref name="LAEve1921" />
Wherry was the author of four novels, ''A Great Gulf Fixed'' (1911),<ref name="Dragma1911">{{cite journal |title=News of the Alumnae - Sigma |journal=To Dragma To Dragma of Alpha Omicron Pi |publisher=George Banta Publishing Company |location=Menasha, Wis. |date=February 1911 |volume=6 |page=106 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TAwUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA106 |access-date=1 November 2025 |language=en |edition=Public domain}}</ref> ''The Red Lantern'' (1911), ''The Wanderer on a Thousand Hills'' (1917), and ''Jade Mountain'' (1926). It was in a cottage in Berkeley, California that Wherry first began her tale called ''The Red Lantern''. She had hours on her hands she wanted to occupy, party by way of entertainment of her mother, desperately ill in a hospital. She began the story only to read the proofs a year later in Paris.<ref name="LAEve1921" /> All four of these novels<ref name="Progress-Bull1961" /> dealt with life in China, in which country she lived for many years. The screen version of ''The Red Lantern'' was produced by the Metro Pictures in 1919, with Alla Nazimova in the leading role. The picture was regarded as one of the most important of the year and had a great success.<ref name="WhoswhoinCanada1922" /> She also published some poetry.<ref name="Progress-Bull1961" /> Wherry retained her maiden name as a pen name.
While not aggressively advocating suffrage work, Wherry favored international conventions for women.<ref name="LAEve1921" /> She belonged to the Hollywood Country Club and the Sorority of List of Alpha Omicron Pi at the University of California, Berkeley, Sigma Chapter.<ref name="WhoswhoinCanada1922" />
==Personal life== In religion, she was Anglican.<ref name="WhoswhoinCanada1922" />
For some years, she made her home in Hollywood, California.<ref name="WhoswhoinCanada1922">{{cite book |last1=Parker |first1=Charles Whately |last2=Greene |first2=Barnet M. |title=Who's who in Canada: An Illustrated Biographical Record of Men and Women of the Time |year=1922 |publisher=International Press Limited |location=Toronto |page=598 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZTkzAAAAMAAJ&pg=PR598#v=onepage&q=wherry&f=false |language=en |edition=Public domain}}</ref>
==Death and legacy== Edith Wherry Muckleston died at her home in Claremont, California on April 7, 1961.<ref name="Progress-Bulletin">{{cite news |title=Claremont Woman Dies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/progress-bulletin-claremont-woman-dies/184122151/ |access-date=1 November 2025 |work=Progress-Bulletin |date=8 April 1961 |location=Pomona |page=5}} {{open access}}</ref>
Her papers are held in the collections of the University of Oregon.<ref name="uoregon">{{cite web |title=Edith Wherry Muckleston papers - Collection Identifier: Coll 264 |url=https://scua.uoregon.edu/repositories/2/resources/2180 |website=scua.uoregon.edu |access-date=1 November 2025 |archive-date=24 July 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240724011511/https://scua.uoregon.edu/repositories/2/resources/2180 |url-status=live }}</ref>
==Filmography== thumb|Nazimova in a film still (''The Red Lantern'', 1919) ===Screenwriter=== * ''The Red Lantern'', 1919 ([https://books.google.com/books?id=nvcdAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover text] via Internet Archive)
==Selected works== ===Novels=== * ''A Great Gulf Fixed'', 1911 * ''The red lantern : being the story of the goddess of the red lantern light'', 1911 ([https://archive.org/details/redlantern00wherrich/page/n8/mode/1up text] via Internet Archive) * ''The wanderer on a thousand hills'', 1917 ([https://archive.org/details/cu31924023400330 text] via Internet Archive) * ''Jade Mountain'', 1926<ref name="Catalog1927">{{cite book |author1=Library of Congress Copyright Office |title=Catalog of Copyright Entries. New Series: 1927 |date=September 1927 |publisher=Copyright Office, Library of Congress |page=951 |issue=71 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=naMhAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA951 |access-date=1 November 2025 |language=en}}</ref>
===Non-fiction=== * Wherry, E.M., Zwemer, S.M. & Mylrea, C. G. ''The Mohammedan World of Today 1906''. New York: The Young People's Missionary Movement, 1906.<ref name="ibri">{{cite book |first=Samuel M. |last=Zwemer |editor1-first=E. M. |editor1-last=Wherry |editor2-first=S. M. |editor2-last=Swemer |editor3-first=C. G. |editor3-last=Mylrea |title=Islam and Missions |url=https://www.ibri.org/Books/Zwemer/1911-Islam-Missions/htm/doc.html |publisher=Fleming H. Revell Company |via=The Interdisciplinary Biblical Research Institute |access-date=7 November 2025 |language=en |year=1911 |edition=Public domain |archive-date=4 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240804004951/https://www.ibri.org/Books/Zwemer/1911-Islam-Missions/htm/doc.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wherry, Edith}} Category:1876 births Category:1961 deaths Category:20th-century American novelists Category:20th-century American women novelists Category:20th-century American screenwriters Category:Wellesley College alumni Category:Stanford University alumni Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni Category:University of Paris alumni Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers Category:Mills College faculty