Louis Auchincloss

Louis Stanton Auchincloss (pronounced "Awk-kin-claus"; born September 27, 1917) is a prolific American novelist, historian, and essayist.

Biography

Born in Lawrence, New York, Auchincloss, grew up in the privileged classes about whom he would write, attending St. Bernard's School, Groton School, and Yale University, where he was editor of the "Yale Literary Magazine", and a member of Scroll and Key Society. Notwithstanding he did not complete undergraduate studies at Yale, he was admitted to and attended law school at the University of Virginia, where he graduated in 1941, the year in which he was also admitted to the New York Bar. He was an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell from 1941 to 1951 (with an interruption for war service from 1941 to 1945 in the United States Navy during World War II). After a break to pursue full-time writing [ [http://www.wiredforbooks.org/louisauchincloss/index.htm] Wired for Books 1986 interview with Louis Auchincloss by Don Swaim] , Auchincloss returned to working as a lawyer, firstly as an associate (1954–58) and then as a partner (1958–86) at Hawkins, Delafield and Wood in New York City as a wills and trusts attorney, while writing a novel per year.

Among Auchincloss's best-known books are the multi-generational sagas "The House of Five Talents", "Portrait in Brownstone", and "East Side Story"; "The Rector of Justin", the tale of the beloved headmaster of a school like Groton trying to deal with changing times, and "The Embezzler", a look at white-collar crime. Auchincloss is known for his closely observed portraits of old New York and New England society.

Auchincloss was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1965. He received the National Medal of Arts in 2005. He has received honorary degrees from New York University (Litt.D., 1974), Pace University (1979), and (1986).

Bibliography

Novels

*"The Indifferent Children" (1947)
*"Sybil" (1952)
*"A Law for the Lion" (1953)
*"The Great World and Timothy Colt" (1956)
*"Venus in Sparta" (1958)
*"Pursuit of the Prodigal" (1959)
*"The House of Five Talents" (1960)
*"Portrait in Brownstone" (1962)
*"The Rector of Justin" (1964)
*"The Embezzler" (1966)
*"A World of Profit" (1968)
*"I Come as a Thief" (1972)
*"The Dark Lady" (1977)
*"The Country Cousin" (1978)
*"The House of the Prophet" (1980)
*"The Cat and the King" (1981)
*"Watchfires" (1982)
*"Exit Lady Masham" (1983)
*"The Book Class" (1984)
*"Honourable Men" (1986)
*"Diary of a Yuppie" (1987)
*"The Golden Calves" (1988)
*"Fellow Passengers: A Novel in Portraits" (1989)
*"The Lady of Situations" (1990)
*"Three Lives" (1993)
*"The Education of Oscar Fairfax" (1995)
*"Her Infinite Variety" (2000)
*"The Scarlet Letters" (2003)
*"East Side Story" (2004)
*"The Headmaster's Dilemma" (2007)

hort story collections

*"The Injustice Collectors" (1950)
*"The Romantic Egoists" (1954)
*"Powers of Attorney" (1963)
*"Tales of Manhattan" (1967)
*"Second Chance: Tales of Two Generations" (1970)
*"The Partners" (1974)
*"The Winthrop Covenant" (1976)
*"Narcissa and Other Fables" (1982)
*"Skinny Island: More Tales of Manhattan" (1987)
*"False Gods" (1992)
*"Tales of Yesteryear" (1994)
*"The Collected Stories of Louis Auchincloss" (1994)
*"The Atonement and Other Stories" (1997)
*"The Anniversary and Other Stories" (1999)
*"Manhattan Monologues" (2002)
*"The Young Apollo and Other Stories" (2006)
*"The Friend of Women and Other Stories" (2007)

Nonfiction

*"Reflections of a Jacobite" (1961)
*"Pioneers and Caretakers: A Study of Nine American Women Novelists" (1965)
*"On Sister Carrie" (1968)
*"Motiveless Malignity" (1969)
*"Edith Wharton: A Woman in Her Time" (1972)
*"Richelieu" (1972)
*"A Writer's Capital" (1974)
*"Reading Henry James" (1975)
*"Life, Law, and Letters: Essays and Sketches" (1979)
*"Persons of Consequence: Queen Victoria and Her Circle" (1979)
*"False Dawn: Women in the Age of the Sun King" (1985)
*"The Vanderbilt Era: Profiles of a Gilded Age" (1989)
*"Love without Wings: Some Friendships in Literature and Politics" (1991)
*"The Style's the Man: Reflections on Proust, Fitzgerald, Wharton, Vidal, and Others" (1994)
*"The Man Behind the Book: Literary Profiles" (1996)
*"Woodrow Wilson (Penguin Lives)" (2000)
*"Theodore Roosevelt (The American Presidents Series)" (2002)

External links

* [http://newcriterion.com/archive/16/oct97/tuttle.htm/ Louis Auchincloss at 80] (The New Criterion)
* [http://www.jstor.org/view/00029831/dm990238/99p0225z/0?frame=noframe&userID=[e-mail]/01cce4405f00501c3d8ef&dpi=3&config=jstor Review of Christopher Dahl's 1986 critical biography of Louis Auchincloss] (American Literature: Vol. 60, No. 2, pp. 308–10)
* [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1925961a-67e4-11dc-8906-0000779fd2ac.html ‘The irony of my life’ A review of the career of Louis Auchincloss] ("The Financial Times", 21 September 2007)

References

* Other information verified/rectified and/or amplified from "Who’s Who in America 2002", Marquis Who’s Who, Providence, NJ, 2001, ISBN 0837969638 is: full name, date of birth, date of graduation from the University of Virginia and admission to the New York Bar, war service, employment history and honorary degrees.