edith wharton made these extremely beautiful homes.two houses in france is the kind of person is sincere service ahead to spring clean the house so that by the time she is there, the silk and satin sheets along the bed and being comical about it because they're is a level of wealth and expenditure which is pretty impressive. at the same time, unlike many of her contemporaries this woman was a professional writer who did not actually really like conspicuous consumption. she did not like pending for the sake of it. she wanted to make very beautiful homes and gardens. a quiet in interesting times. her greatest passion was literature, art, paintings, gardening, and not -- so to identify edith wharton with high spending, you know, the millionaire on fifth avenue is wrong. she's a more private person and that, but she did have a lot of money unspent while. >> this is book tv on c-span2, and we are in london. we're talking with hermoine lee, author and president of wilson college at oxford. another topic of years was willing cantor. does she

choose a writer, why not abolitionist harriet beecher-stowe who pennedded uncle tom's cabin or edith whartongelou. >> you created only a little lower than the angels have crouchd too long in the bruising darkness. >> reporter: women who bucked the system deserve a buck. hair yet tubman who escaped slavery to become a union spy and conductor on the underground railroad or victoria woodhole, the first female presidential candidate or rosa parks or gloria design em, a feminist who could rock a bunny suit. when it comes to noteworthy american women, our cups runneth over. which brings me to my favorite pick. dolly parton. ♪ working 9:00 to 5:00 what a way to make a living ♪ >> reporter: there's not a truer american story than hers. born dirt poor in tennessee she invented and bedazzled herself to become a national treasure, a brilliant musician, composer and mogul and she is all woman. a side note about notes. senator john mccain recently cosponsored the coins act which proposes replacing the $1 with a coin. when asked what this would mean for exotic dancers' tips mccain shouted that he hoped st