Edith Catherine MacNeal (née Gould, formerly Wainwright) (August 3, 1901 – September 10, 1937) was an American heiress and writer.

Edith was born aboard her father's yacht, Sybarite, on August 3, 1901, while it was anchored off Cold Spring Harbor and was flying the British flag.

[3] Her father was the eldest son of the former Helen Day Miller and Jay Gould, a leading American railroad developer and speculator who has been referred to as one of the ruthless robber barons of the Gilded Age, whose success at business made him one of the richest men of his era.

[2] He was a nephew of four star General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright, who was the hero of Bataan and commander of the U.S. forces in the Philippines during World War II.

[10] Before their divorce in 1932,[11] they were the parents of three children: In 1927, the family moved to East Hampton, New York where they built an imposing house called "Gulf Crest," that was valued at $350,000 in 1937.