Wharton portrays her affectionately in The Age of Innocence as Mrs. The phrase is also associated with another of Edith Wharton's aunts, Mary Mason Jones, who built a large mansion at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, then undeveloped. Astor (married to a Jones cousin), a phenomenon later described as 'keeping up with the Joneses'. The villa reportedly spurred more building, including a house by William B.

In 1853, Elizabeth Schermerhorn Jones built a 24-room gothic villa called Wyndcliffe described by Henry Winthrop Sargent in 1859 as being very fine in the style of a Scottish castle, but by Edith Wharton, Elizabeth's niece, as a gloomy monstrosity. The Joneses and other rich New Yorkers began to build country villas in the Hudson Valley around Rhinecliff and Rhinebeck, which had belonged to the Livingstons, another prominent New York family to whom the Joneses were related. The Joneses were a prominent New York family with substantial interests in Chemical Bank as a result of marrying the daughters of the bank's founder, John Mason. Griffith directed a series of comedy shorts starring The Biograph Girl, Florence Lawrence, featuring the people next door, The Joneses.Īn alternative explanation is that the Joneses of the saying refer to the wealthy family of Edith Wharton's father, the Joneses.

The Smiths like the new play the Joneses go to see it, and they copy the Smith verdict.' Starting in 1908, D.W. 'The outside influences are always pouring in upon us, and we are always obeying their orders and accepting their verdicts. Simmons wrote in Memoirs of a Station Master of the railroad station as a place for social exchange: 'The Joneses, who don't associate with the Robinsons, meet there.' American humorist Mark Twain made an allusion to Smith and Jones families with regard to social custom in the essay 'Corn Pone Opinions', written in 1901 but first published in 1923. The use of the name Jones to refer to metaphorical neighbors or friends in discussions of social comparison predates Momand's comic strip. The idiom keeping up with the Joneses has remained popular long after the strip's end. The Joneses were unseen characters throughout the strip's run, often spoken of but never shown. The strip depicts the social climbing McGinis family, who struggle to 'keep up' with their neighbors, the Joneses of the title. The strip ran until 1940 in The New York World and various other newspapers. The phrase originates with the comic strip Keeping Up with the Joneses, created by Arthur R.

Wanted by K.A. Jones