Most Popular Books by Louis Auchincloss

The marriage of Dexter and Rosalie Fairchild--a relationship reflecting the security and privilege of their upper-class New York City lives--is disrupted by personal and political tensions arising from the Civil War.

Spanning three centuries, these nine stories share the conflicts of a wealthy New England family while portraying the rise and fall of the Puritan ethic. The Winthrop Heritage begins in the stern confines of the Massachusetts Bay Colony—Governor John Winthrop’s covenant with God versus Anne Hutchinson’s compulsion to martyrdom. The burden of conscience falls in varying ways to the Governor’s descendants. To his grandson, a judge in the Salem witch trials, it means dying in torment. To Rebecca Bayard, wife of a Hudson Valley patroon, it becomes an obsessive sense of duty leading to ironic consequences. It persuades an American diplomat, negotiating in Paris with the canny Talleyrand, to reject the easy gain of private power. On the eve of the Civil War, Winthrop Ward, pillar of rectitude in New York society, finds himself playing God at the price of his own humanity. At the century’s turn, there is Adam Winthrop, wealthy clubman and cultural arbiter, and his protégée Ada Guest—the passionate bluestocking novelist who opts to escape his stifling patronage. In a New England boarding school in the 1920s, the headmaster’s bedeviled Winthrop soul becomes a strange challenge to the chaplain. On the current scene, young and fashionable Natica Seligmann yearns for salvation from an empty life. And finally, there is John Winthrop Gardiner, staunch State Department hawk, whose son is an Army deserter—and whose alcoholic ex-wife perceives only too clearly the latter-day perversions of the Puritan spirit. A compassionate, searching, and wholly arresting view of a moral strain that, for better or worse, has marked our national character, The Winthrop Covenant is one of Louis Auchincloss’ highest fictional achievements.

From a New York Times–bestselling author: A collection of short fiction “reminiscent of the work of Henry James and Edith Wharton” (Library Journal). Crisscrossing a tumultuous century, these stories evoke lives both blessed and cursed by good fortune and reveal the quotidian conflicts of a wonderfully rich milieu. Here are vignettes that capture the loves and jealousies of marriage and friendship, recall days of a rarefied aristocracy, and hint at a new, ambitious young elite. In the title story, a tour de force of humor and emotion, a clergyman prepares a toast for his twenty-fifth wedding anniversary but gets stuck when it comes to his wife’s five-year affair. The narrator in “DeCicco v. Schweizer” imagines the lives of the plaintiff and defendant and spins a wicked tale about a 1902 marriage born more of convenience than of love. And in “The Last of the Great Courtesans,” we meet the unforgettable Milly Marion, born in 1917, who has bewitched everyone she has met in her long, colorful life. Whether these stories concern an anxious draft dodger, a repentant headmaster, or a mischievous writer who ill-advisedly draws from her own family for her fiction, they all offer soulful glimpses into an uncommon world, preserved in our past and yet surprisingly close to our hearts. “His themes are universal—ambition, greed, disappointment, compromise. Some of the most memorable characters are women, trying to find their way in a time of more restricted choices . . . It’s easy to get lost in the author’s elegant and restrained prose.” —Booklist

The author of The Vanderbilt Era examines sixteen famous friendships, from Boswell and Johnson to Hawthorne and Melville. This delightful series of short essays explores friendship in its various forms—from true intimacy to professional detente between rivals. The friendships, literary and political, span two continents and three centuries—Boswell and Johnson, Fitzgerald and Hemingway, Richelieu and Father Joseph, FDR and Harry Hopkins, Edith Wharton and Margaret Chanler—sixteen sketches in all. Auchincloss approaches his subjects with grace, tact, and insight, subtly defining the peculiar, gentle chemistry on which platonic bonds depend. The result is a surprising array of social patterns and personal destinies, all stemming from the simple desire for human company.

The offices, penthouses, and suburban chateaux of New York are the setting for Louis Auchincloss''s The Dark Lady. Spanning three decades from the 1930s to the McCarthy era, the novel chronicles a powerful woman''s rise and the human toll it exacts. In a world where birth and style count nearly as much as wealth, Elesina Dart is supremely equipped to star. Lovely, well-born, bright, even moderately talented as an actress, Elesina seems perversely bent on canceling out these advantages. After two destructive marriages and an affair with alcohol, she is close to low ebb when Ivy Trask takes her on. Ivy''s business is the exercise of power, as editor of the fashion-arbitrating Tone magazine and in her own loveless life. In Elesina, she finds material worthy of her best efforts. Stage-managed by Ivy, Elesina makes a widely successful and equally scandalous match with Judge Irving Stein, banker, connoisseur, collector—and old enough to know better, as all who are close to him point out. Mistress of Broadlawns, Irving''s Westchester estate, and caretaker of his fabulous art collection are roles Elesina takes in stride. For all his riches and influence, Irving is a man of deep sensibility, a romantic—as is David, his attractive youngest son, whose passion for his stepmother leads to tragic consequences. Inevitably, husband, lover, and friend all fall victim to Elesina''s need for the center stage, which she has come to see as her manifest destiny. In this major novel, Louis Auchincloss examines the many faces of ambition and desire that rule both the schemers and dreamers of fashionable society. It is a story that only Auchincloss, with his exceptional knowledge and insight, could write.

A portrait of a century?s greatest political mastermind Our tw ent y-eighth president was, says Louis Auchincloss, ?the greatest idealist who ever occupied the White House.? Now, in Woodrow Wilson, Auchincloss sheds new light on Wilson?s upbringing and career, from the grim determination that enabled him to overcome dyslexia to the skillful dance of isolationism and intervention in World War I to the intransigence that?despite his most cherished vision?caused the Senate?s rejection of the League of Nations. From the dynamic figure whose ringing speeches hypnotized vast crowds, to the gentle voice reading poetry to his children, Auchincloss presents all the triumphs and the final tragic irony of this flawed apostle of world peace.

A collection of stories about rich Wasps. In Ars Gratia Artis, a railroad baron becomes a patron of the arts in a bid to atone for a life of money grabbing, while in Geraldine, a woman chooses dignity over money.

A history of the growth of the J.P. Morgan collections and an examination of the quality of Morgan''s eye and the impulses behind his purchases. More than 130 illustrations present a survey of Morgan''s treasures, which include the Fragonard panels and Vermeer''s A lady writing.

Novel of high society in New York, Panama, and London during 1941-44.

In these captivating profiles of the first four generations of railroad tycoon "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt''s family, veteran novelist Louis Auchincloss weaves a tale of wealth in pursuit of grandeur. For the Vanderbilts, living well was the ultimate revenge. 25 photos.

33-year-old woman is divorced by her husband, under scandalous circumstances.

In this witty historical novel by the author of Watchfires, a poor woman joins the eighteenth-century court of Queen Anne and ends a war. On the Continent, John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, is laying waste to the lowlands in a bloody combat with Louis XIV. Meanwhile at the British court, Queen Anne, aging, ill, and surrounded by sycophants, is coping with the intrigues of those who wish to promote Marlborough’s dangerous ambitions. Chief among the plotters is his headstrong wife (and court favorite), Sarah Churchill. Into this tense and steamy environment comes young Abigail Hill, Sarah’s impoverished cousin. Sarah has arranged for her to be a maid to the Queen. But Abigail will discover that she has been marked by destiny for a special mission, which is nothing less than to bring to a halt a destructive world war. How she accomplishes this is the subject of this unusual but historically justified tale . . . The drama of court life and high politics, the growing antagonism between Sarah and Abigail, and an engaging cast of characters make for a lively narrative. And the portrait of Queen Anne is a tour de force that lends further depth to this vivid and engaging book. Perfect for fans of the Yorgos Lanthimos film, The Favourite, starring Olivia Coleman and Emma Stone.

With its ranks limited to 250 members, the American Academy of Arts and Letters is counted among the foremost honors an American in the arts can receive. For this tribute to the Academy, eleven of its current members provide illuminating insights into those artists whom members have held in high esteem--and those they have not. 85 photos.

In 1953, the wealthy coastal enclave of Glenville is shaken by scandal when it is revealed that Rodman Jessup, junior partner of a prestigious law firm, has become embroiled in an adulterous affair with a society woman.

Critical discussions of American women authors.

The American century opened with the election of that quintessentially American adventurer, Theodore Roosevelt. Louis Auchincloss''s warm and knowing biography introduces us to the man behind the many myths in this edition of The American Presidents Series. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Henry Adams - American Writers 93 was first published in 1971. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

Ellen Glasgow - American Writers 33 was first published in 1964. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

Pre-publication review proof copy.

Socially prominent and wealthy New Yorker forsakes the family law firm, his wife and children, and his Long Island estate in order to find a new life on his own merit.

The story of a dedicated young lawyer in Manhattan and his reaction when disillusioned by the dishonesty of his firm.

Two hundred years after his birth, Nathaniel Hawthorne remains one of America''s most important and influential writers. To celebrate that bicentennial, this new collection gathers essays by novelists, critics, historians, and biographers that explore aspects of Hawthorne''s life and work. It is published by the Lenox Library in Lenox, Massachusetts, the Berkshire town where Hawthorne spent two productive years and where he formed his friendship with Herman Melville. The writers and subjects here range from Louis Auchincloss and Elizabeth Hardwick on The Scarlet Letter to Paul Auster on Hawthorne''s journals and what they reveal about his family life; from Harrison Hayford''s previously unpublished exploration of Hawthorne''s influence on Melville to Carol Gilligan''s experiences adapting Hawthorne''s work for the stage; from Wendell Garrett''s evocation of nineteenth-century Salem to a sample of Hawthorne''s own journalism--"Chiefly About War Matters by a Peaceable Man," written for The Atlantic Monthly in 1862. Also in these essays, curators of Hawthorne historical sites explore the influence of physical environment on the writer; biographer Brenda Wineapple examines the author''s political views, including his controversial disdain of abolitionists; journalist and novelist Tom Wicker offers an appraisal of Hawthorne''s skills as a war correspondent; and journalist Neil Hickey considers the author''s ongoing cultural influence through film and television adaptations of his work. The heavily illustrated volume will also feature a range of visual materials, including original, full-page silhouettes in a nineteenth century style by Scherenschnitte (papercutting) artist Pamela Dalton.