Louis Stanton Auchincloss (; September 27, 1917 – January 26, 2010)Holcomb B. Noble and Charles McGrath

''

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''. Retrieved on January 27, 2010. was an American lawyer, novelist, historian, and essayist. He is best known as a novelist who parlayed his experiences into books exploring the experiences and psychology of American polite society and

old money Old money is "the inherited wealth of established upper-class families (i.e. gentry, patriciate)" or "a person, family, or lineage possessing inherited wealth". The term typically describes a social class of the rich who have been able t ...

. His dry, ironic works of fiction continue the tradition of

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

and

Edith Wharton Edith Wharton (; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and interior designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray ...

. in He wrote his novels initially under the name Andrew Lee, the name of an ancestor who cursed any descendant who drank or smoked.

Early life

Born in Lawrence,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, Auchincloss was the son of Priscilla Dixon (née Stanton) and Joseph Howland Auchincloss. His brother was Howland Auchincloss and his paternal grandfather, John Winthrop Auchincloss, was the brother of Edgar Stirling Auchincloss (father of

James C. Auchincloss James Coats Auchincloss (January 19, 1885 – October 2, 1976) was an American businessman and Republican Party politician who represented northern coastal region of New Jersey in the United States House of Representatives from 1943–196 ...

) and Hugh Dudley Auchincloss (father of Hugh D. Auchincloss, Jr.). He grew up among the privileged people about whom he would write, although, as he put it, "There was never an Auchincloss fortune…each generation of Auchincloss men either made or married its own money". He attended

St. Bernard's School St. Bernard's School, founded in 1904 by John Card Jenkins,www.stbernards.org
- the school's website

Groton School Groton School (founded as Groton School for Boys) is a private college-preparatory boarding school located in Groton, Massachusetts. Ranked as one of the top five boarding high schools in the United States in Niche (2021–2022), it is affiliated ...

and

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

, where he was editor of the '' Yale Literary Magazine''. Although he did not complete his undergraduate studies at Yale, he was admitted to and attended law school at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

. He graduated in 1941 and was admitted to the New York bar the same year.

Career

Auchincloss was an associate at

Sullivan & Cromwell Sullivan & Cromwell LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered in New York City. Known as a white-shoe firm, Sullivan & Cromwell is recognized as a leader in business law, and is known for its impact on international affairs, such ...

from 1941 to 1951 (with an interruption for war service from 1942 to 1945 in the

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during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, which might have inspired his 1947 novel ''The Indifferent Children''). He applied to join the Naval Reserve as an intelligence specialist on December 4, 1940 and was appointed as a lieutenant on December 1, 1942. After taking a break to pursue full-time writing, Auchincloss returned to working as a lawyer, first 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 at the rate of a book a year.

Literary career

Auchincloss is known for his closely observed portraits of old New York and New England society. Among his books are the multi-generational sagas ''The House of Five Talents'' (1960), ''Portrait in Brownstone'' (1962), and ''East Side Story'' (2004). ''The Rector of Justin'' (1964) is the tale of a renowned

headmaster A head master, head instructor, bureaucrat, headmistress, head, chancellor, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school. In som ...

of a prep school like the one he attended, Groton School, trying to deal with changing times. In the early 1980s, Auchincloss produced three novels which were not centered on the New York he knew so well, i.e. ''The Cat and the King'', set in Louis XIV's Versailles, ''Watchfires'', concerned with the American Civil War, and ''Exit Lady Masham'', set in Queen Anne's England. Auchincloss would remain close to New York again, however, in his later fiction writing.

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and e ...

said of his work: "Of all our novelists, Auchincloss is the only one who tells us how our rulers behave in their banks and their boardrooms, their law offices and their clubs.... Not since Dreiser has an American writer had so much to tell us about the role of money in our lives."

Personal life

In 1957, Auchincloss married Adele Burden Lawrence (1931–1991), the daughter of Florence Irvin (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Burden) Lawrence and Blake Leigh Lawrence. Her grandfather was prominent industrialist

James A. Burden Jr. James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

and her great-grandmother was Vanderbilt heiress Emily Thorn (née Vanderbilt) Sloane White. Adele was an artist, environmentalist and later became a deputy administrator of the New York City Parks and Recreation Department. Together they had three children: * Andrew Sloan Auchincloss, a lawyer who married Tracy Lee Ehrlich in 1999. * John Winthrop Auchincloss II, a lawyer who married Dr. Tracy Pennoyer, sister of architect Peter Pennoyer (both great-grandchildren of

J.P. Morgan Jr. John Pierpont Morgan Jr. (September 7, 1867 – March 13, 1943) was an American banker, finance executive, and philanthropist. He inherited the family fortune and took over the business interests including J.P. Morgan & Co. after his father J. ...

), in 1988. * Blake Leigh Auchincloss, an architect He was president and chairman of the

Museum of the City of New York A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

and chairman of the City Hall Restoration Committee and was a member of the

Century Association The Century Association is a private social, arts, and dining club in New York City, founded in 1847. Its clubhouse is located at 7 West 43rd Street near Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. It is primarily a club for men and women with distinction ...

and the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...

, where he served as president. On January 26, 2010, Auchincloss died from complications of a

stroke A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...

Lenox Hill Hospital Lenox Hill Hospital (LHH) is a nationally ranked 450-bed non-profit, tertiary, research and academic medical center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, servicing the tri-state area. LHH is one of the region's many unive ...

in New York City.

Awards and legacy

Significant collections of Auchincloss's papers reside at the

Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia is a research library that specializes in American history and literature, history of Virginia and the southeastern United States, the history of the Universit ...

at the

and at the

Beinecke Library The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library () is the rare book library and literary archive of the Yale University Library in New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of the largest buildings in the world dedicated to rare books and manuscripts. ...

. In addition, he was the recipient of the following awards and accolades: *National Book Award Finalist (1960, 1961, 1965, 1967) *Member,

(1965) *Honorary degree,

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

(Litt.D., 1974) *Honorary degree,

Pace University Pace University is a private university with its main campus in New York City and secondary campuses in Westchester County, New York. It was established in 1906 by the brothers Homer St. Clair Pace and Charles A. Pace as a business school. Pace ...

(1979) *President, American Academy of Arts and Letters (19??) *Honorary degree,

The University of the South The University of the South, familiarly known as Sewanee (), is a private Episcopal liberal arts college in Sewanee, Tennessee. It is owned by 28 southern dioceses of the Episcopal Church, and its School of Theology is an official seminary o ...

(1986) *Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

(1997) *"Living Landmark" status (2000),

New York Landmarks Conservancy The New York Landmarks Conservancy is a non-profit organization "dedicated to preserving, revitalizing, and reusing" historic structures in New York state. It provides technical assistance, project management services, grants, and loans, to owne ...

National Medal of Arts The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and patrons of the arts. A prestigious American honor, it is the highest honor given to artists and arts patrons ...

(2005)

Works

Auchincloss wrote more than 60 books.

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): National Book Award Finalist *''The House of Five Talents'' (1960): National Book Award Finalist *''Portrait in Brownstone'' (1962) *''The Rector of Justin'' (1964): National Book Award Finalist *''The Embezzler'' (1966): National Book Award Finalist *''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 ''The Cat and the King'' (1981) is a work of historical fiction about the court of French King Louis XIV (1638–1715) by novelist Louis Auchincloss. The novel's narrator— Louis de Rouvroy, the second Duc de Saint-Simon—was a real-life Fren ...

'' (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 ''Her Infinite Variety'' is a novel by Louis Auchincloss first published in 2000 about a career woman of the first half of the 20th century. The title is a quotation from William Shakespeare, Shakespeare's ''Antony and Cleopatra'': "Age cannot wit ...

'' (2000) *''The Scarlet Letters'' (2003) *''East Side Story'' (2004) *''The Headmaster's Dilemma'' (2007) *''Last of the Old Guard'' (2008)

Short 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) *''A Voice from Old New York: A Memoir of My Youth'' (2010)

Adaptations

Auchincloss's ''The Great World and Timothy Colt'' (1956) was adapted for television in an episode of the ''

Climax! ''Climax!'' (later known as ''Climax Mystery Theater'') is an American television anthology series that aired on CBS from 1954 to 1958. The series was hosted by William Lundigan and later co-hosted by Mary Costa. It was one of the few CBS progra ...

'' series (Season 4, Episode 22; Broadcast 27 March 1958). Composer Paul Reif adapted ''Portrait in Brownstone'' into an opera upon which he was working at the time of his death; it has remained unperformed.

References

;Notes ;Sources *

External links

Louis Auchincloss
– ''Daily Telegraph'' obituary

''The Independent'', 2 February 2010 *
Louis Auchincloss papers
* Louis Auchincloss Collection. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Auchincloss, Louis Auchincloss family 1917 births 2010 deaths Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences United States National Medal of Arts recipients Groton School alumni University of Virginia School of Law alumni Yale University alumni New York (state) lawyers Virginia lawyers Novelists from New York (state) Novelists from Virginia American male essayists American male novelists American male poets American male short story writers 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers 20th-century American essayists 21st-century American essayists 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers Sullivan & Cromwell associates People from Lawrence, Nassau County, New York Military personnel from New York (state) Historians from New York (state) 20th-century American lawyers Presidents of the American Academy of Arts and Letters