Edward Mandell House was born on July 26, 1858, in Houston, Texas.

He was an American diplomat and political advisor. He attended Houston Academy, a school in Bath, England, a prep school in Virginia, and Hopkins Grammar School, New Haven, Connecticut. In 1877, he entered Cornell University, but after his father fell ill, he returned to Texas to take care of him and help manage the estate. He eventually sold the cotton and sugar plantations and invested in banking. He was a founder of the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway. He became active in Texas politics, but in 1902, he moved to New York City and served as an advisor to New Jersey governor Woodrow Wilson in 1911. He helped him win the Democratic presidential nomination in 1912 and advised him in foreign affairs. House spent much of 1915 and 1916 in Europe, trying to negotiate peace through diplomacy. As one of America's greatest diplomats, he served as Wilson's chief negotiator in Europe between 1917 and 1919 and as Wilson’s chief deputy at the Paris Peace Conference (1919). His major achievements were participating in the drafting of Wilson's Fourteen Points (1918), the Treaty of Versailles, the Covenant of the League of Nations (1919) and securing an armistice with the Allies based on American ideals. In the 1920s, House strongly supported membership of both the League of Nations and the Permanent Court of International Justice. In 1912, House anonymously published a novel, "Philip Dru: Administrator."

In 1881, he married Elizabeth Louisa "Loulie" Hunter (1859–1941). He died on March 28, 1938, in New York City, New York.