A Son at the Front

About A Son at the Front

Pulitzer Prize–winning author

This powerful classic of American literature paints a moving portrait of young man forced to enlist in World War I and the devastated father he must leave behind

Inspired by a young man Edith Wharton met during her war relief work in France, A Son at the Front (1923) opens in Paris on July 30, 1914, as Europe totters on the brink of war. 

Expatriate American painter John Campton, whose only son George, having been born in Paris, must report for duty in the French army, struggles to keep his son away from the front while grappling with the moral implications of his actions. A poignant meditation on art and possession, fidelity and responsibility, A Son at the Front is Wharton’s indelible take on the war novel.