A Voice from Old New York; A Memoir of My Youth
Henry Grossman (Jacket photographs), and Everett R Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2010. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. xiii, [1], 203, [7] pages. DJ has slight wear and soiling. Louis Stanton Auchincloss (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. Auchincloss was an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell from 1941 to 1951 (with an interruption for war service from 1942 to 1945 in the United States Navy during World War II). 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 and then as a partner at Hawkins, Delafield and Wood in New York City, while writing at the rate of a book a year. 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, Portrait in Brownstone, and East Side Story. The Rector of Justin is the tale of a renowned headmaster of a prep school like the one he attended, Groton School, trying to deal with changing times. Gore Vidal said of his work: " 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." At the time of his death, Louis Auchincloss, enemy of bores, self-pity, and gossip less than fresh, had just finished taking on a subject he had long avoided: himself. His memoir confirms that, despite the spark of his fiction, Auchincloss himself was the most entertaining character he has created. No traitor to his class but occasionally its critic, he returns us to his Society which was, he maintains, less interesting than its members admitted. You may differ as he unfurls his life with dignity, summoning his family (particularly his father who suffered from depression and forgave him for hating sports) and intimates. Brooke Astor and her circle are here, along with glimpses of Jacqueline Onassis. Most memorable, though, is his way with those outside the salon: the cranky maid; the maiden aunt, perpetually out of place; the less-than-well-born boy who threw himself from a window over a woman and a man. Here is Auchincloss, an American master, being Auchincloss, a rare eye, a generous and lively spirit to the end. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Bar Harbor, Society, Great Depression, Naval Service, WWII, Writer, Lawyer, Attorney, Brooke Astor, Jacqueline Onassis, Novelist
ISBN: 9780547341538
[Book #85408]
Price: $45.00