Louis Stanton Auchincloss (/ˈɔːkɪŋklɒs/; September 27, 1917 – January 26, 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. His dry, ironic works of fiction continue the tradition of Henry James and Edith Wharton. He wrote his novels initially under the name Andrew Lee, the name of an ancestor who cursed any descendant who drank or smoked.
Books in order of publication:
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) | |
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)