Edith Wherry

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. Her parents were Rev. Dr. John Wherry and Sara Ellen Brandon, both of Pekin, China. The father was engaged for more than 55 years in missionary work in the Orient under the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. He translated the Bible into classical literary Chinese.

Edith returned to the U.S. as a teenager to pursue her education, and University of California, Berkeley (graduated in 1907). At the University of Paris (1904-1906), After marriage, they resided for a time in Montreal. 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.

Death and legacy Edith Wherry Muckleston died at her home in Claremont, California on April 7, 1961.

Her papers are held in the collections of the University of Oregon.

Filmography

Screenwriter The Red Lantern, 1919 (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 (text via Internet Archive) The wanderer on a thousand hills, 1917 (text via Internet Archive) Jade Mountain, 1926

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.