The Touchstone - Edith Wharton - The Touchstone is a novel, written by Edith Wharton in 1905; it was the first of her many stories describing life in old New York.Stephen Glennard, the novels protagonist, is suddenly impoverished and unable to marry the woman he loves. He sells the private letters a former admirer had written to him, before she had become a famous author. He is later overcome by guilt for betraying one who had loved him.