I had wanted—in fact, deliberately outlined—a triumphant ending to my book tracing Edith Wharton’s trip to Morocco in 1917. As a grad student in the 1990s and early-2000s, I had lived in Morocco and France and traveled to Egypt, Tunisia, Mali and Mauritania. This...
This week, I am living out a century-old prediction of Edith Wharton. In 1917, my Gilded Age doppelganger asserted that she was on “…a quick trip at a moment unique in the history of the country; the brief moment of transition between its virtually...
Riad Villa Blanche is a time capsule dating to the era when Edith Wharton visited Morocco. At that time, Morocco was a Protectorate of France, and Hubert Lyautey its Resident General. Lyautey’s reign ended in 1925, and Morocco has been independent since 1956....
I sought adventure and some trace of my old recklessness. For two weeks, I had holed myself up in a hotel in Tangier. I had completed the writing of the first section of my book. Done. Other projects required attention, and my list of “should-s” was...
