The article is devoted to the problem of relationship between the artist and American society in Edith Wharton’s works and life. The aim of the article is to find out the peculiarities of art perception and attitude to it by a narrow social group of wealthy people of America. The analysis of the novella “False Dawn” and autobiography “A Backward Glance” allows us to find out the factors that hampers the development of art and culture in the USA: consuming attitude of the American society to the art, strict limits of social traditions and conventions, meager intellectual atmosphere.