Introduction

Notes All of Auchinc1oss' s letters to his mother quoted in this study are in the Louis Auchinc10ss Collection (no. 9121) of the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of the University of Virginia Library. In the notes below they are cited as 'LA to PSA' [i.e. Louis Auchinc10ss to Priscilla Stanton Auchinc1oss], followed by the date. Auchinc1oss's correspondence with James Oliver Brown is in the James Oliver Brown Papers, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University, while his correspondence with Gore Vidal is in the Gore Vidal Collection, State Historical Society of Wisconsin. INTRODUCTION 1. Alfred Kazin, 'The Writer as Sexual Show-Off: Or Making Press Agents Unnecessary', New York, VIll, no. 23 (9 June 1975) 36. 2. Lady Bird Johnson, A White House Diary (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970) p. 676. 3. 'Dual Career', New Yorker, XXVI (13 Aug 1960) 25. 4. R. W. B. Lewis, 'Silver Spoons and Golden Bowls', Book Week (Washington Post), 20 Feb 1966, p.8. 5. Auchinc1oss, 'A Jacobite Files a Demurrer', Virginia Quarterly Re view, XL (Winter 1964) 148. 6. Auchinc10ss (ed.) Introduction to Fables of Wit and Elegance (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1972) p. vii. 7. Auchincloss, 'Proust's Picture of Society', Partisan Review, XXVII (Fall 1960) 701. The essay was reprinted in Auchincloss, Reflections of a Jacobite (Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 1961) pp. 95-111. 8. A[mold] W. E[hrlich], 'PW Interviews: Louis Auchincloss', Pub lishers' Weekly, ccv (18 Feb 1974) 12. 9. Jean W. Ross, 'An Interview with Louis Auchincloss', Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook: 1980 (Detroit: Gale Research, 1981) p. 7; and Auchinc1oss, A Writer's Capital (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1974) p. 122. 10. Gore Vidal, 'Real Class', New York Review of Books, XXI (18 July 1974) 10. For Granville Hicks's statement, see 'Louis Auchincloss', in Hicks, with the assistance of Jack Alan Robbins, Literary Horizons: A Quarter Century of American Fiction (New York: New York University Press, 1970) p. 185. In 1961 Auchincloss similarly drew the support of Leon Edel: 'Value of a Novel', New York Times Book Review, 28 May 1961, p.24. 11. Granville Hicks, 'Literary Horizons - a Bad Legend in his Lifetime', Saturday Review, XLIX (5 Feb 1966) 36; repro in Hicks and Robbins, Literary Horizons, p.204. Other references to Auchincloss's tech nique and style as old-fashioned can be found in, for instance, 228 Notes 229 William Barrett, 'Once Affluent Society', The Atlantic, CCX (Aug 1962) 142; Richard Sullivan, 'A World of Values and Standards', Chicago Sunday Tribune Magazine of Books, 26 Mar 1967, p.5; Richard Todd, 'The Rich Get Rich, but they also Get Children', The Atlantic, CCXXXVII (Apr 1976) 112. 12. Auchincloss, 'Stuyvesant to Lindsay', Book Week (Washington Post), 23 Oct 1966, p. 14. 13. Auchincloss, 'Flaubert and James - Opposing Points of View', New York Times Book Review, 24 June 1984, p. 32; and Auchincloss, 'Doctrin aire' (letter to the editor), New York Times, 12 Oct 1968, sec. II, p.8. 14. 'I believe that writers today (and probably always) are too conscious of literary fashions' - Bill Kennedy, 'Auchincloss: A "Special Author", but ... ', Albany Times-Union, 15 Jan 1967, p. HI. 15. Auchincloss, 'Good Housekeeping', New York Review of Books, XXXIII (17 July 1986) 32. 16. Auchincloss, 'Swann', New York Times, 13 Nov 1978, p. A23. 17. Barbara Goldsmith and Auchindoss, 'Royal Reporters', Interview Magazine, Dec 1980, pp.64-6; Dinitia Smith, 'The Old Master and the Yuppie', New York, XIX, no. 32 (18 Aug 1986) 30-4; Susan Cheever, 'The Most Underrated Writer in America', Vanity Fair, Oct 1985, pp. 104-7, 119-20. 18. For instance, Tom Stevenson, 'Louis Auchincloss: Teller of Tales out of Court', Juris Doctor III (Nov 1973) 20-3; David Ray Papke, 'The Writer on Wall Street: An Interview with Louis Auchindoss', American Legal Studies Association Forum, v, no. 3 (1981) 5-12; 'Fellow Louis S. Auchincloss Spoke at ACPC New York Luncheon', Ameri can College of Probate Counsel Newsletter, IX (Sep 1971) 2-3; Auchin closs, 'The Diner Out', Juris Doctor, III (Nov 1973) 24-8, 30. 19. Patricia Kane, 'Lawyers at the Top: The Fiction of Louis Auchin doss', Critique, VII (Winter 1964-5) 36-46. 20. G. Edward White, 'Human Dimensions of Wall Street Fiction', American Bar Association Journal, LVIII (Feb 1972) 175-80. 21. Wayne W. Westbrook, Wall Street in the American Novel (New York: New York University Press, 1980) pp. 182-96. 22. James W. Tuttleton, The Novel of Manners in America (Chapel Hill: University of South Carolina Press, 1972) pp. 245-61. 23. Gordon Milne, The Sense of Society: A History of the American Novel of Manners (Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1977) pp.236-51. 24. Robie Macauley, 'Let Me Tell You about the Rich', Kenyon Review, XXVII (Autumn 1965) 653-5; Leon Edel, 'Grand Old Man - Not What He Seems to Be', Life, LVII (17 July 1964) 11, 18; Leo Braudy, 'Realists, Naturalists, and Novelists of Manners', in Daniel Hoffman (ed.), Harvard Guide to Contemporary American Writing (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979) pp. 84-6, 136-8. 25. Jackson R. Bryer, Louis Auchincloss and his Critics: A Bibliographical Record (Boston, Mass.: G. K. Hall, 1977). 26. Christopher C. Dahl, Louis Auchincloss, Literature and Life Series, American Writers (New York: Ungar, 1986). 230 Notes 27. David B. Parsell, Louis Auchincloss, Twayne's US Authors Series, no. 534 (Boston, Mass.: Twayne, 1988). CHAPTER 1 THE BOY AND THE YOUNG MAN, 1917-35 1. Auchincloss, A Writer's Capital (Minneapolis: University of Minne sota Press, 1974) p. 21. Auchincloss's motto for his autobiography, 'It has been said that his childhood is a writer's entire capital', was adapted from Mark Twain, who wrote to an unidentified correspon dent, 'I confine myself to life with which I am familiar, when pre tending to portray life. But I confine myself to the boyhood out on the Mississippi because that had a peculiar charm for me and not because I was not familiar with other phases of life .... Now then: as the most valuable capital, or culture, or education usable in the building of novels is personal experience, I ought to be well equipped ... ' - Bernard DeVoto (ed.), The Portable Mark Twain (New York: Viking, 1974) pp. 773-5. 2. Auchincloss A Writer's Capital, pp. 21-2,27. 3. The quotations in this paragraph are from A Writer's Capital, pp.23-4. 4. Cf. ibid., p.33, where Auchincloss identifies the car as a red Rolls-Royce. In actual fact, Thomas Quinn Curtiss has said, it was a yellow Hispano-Suiza, extravagant enough but not quite in the same league as a Rolls-Royce. The discrepancy between fact and Auchincloss's account goes to show the slightly dramatized nature of his autobiography: while the gist is true, the details have been altered so as to create a more evocative picture. Whether these changes occurred consciously or unconsciously cannot be deter mined here. Upon reading the manuscript of this study, however, Auchin closs wrote, 'He [Curtiss] is quite wrong. It was a red Rolls Royce. How I knew them! And I knew Hispanos, too. Miss Dorothy Sturges and Mrs. Whitney Carpenter had Hispanos; Aunt Nanny Steele and Mrs. George Whitney had Rollses. You see I still remember! And how Mother hated that red Rolls' (Auchincloss to Vincent Piket, 28 Jan 1989). 5. Cf. Auchincloss, A Writer's Capital, p.27. 6. Cf. ibid., p.32; and Auchincloss, 'Behind the Brownstone Door', New York Times Magazine, 28 Apr 1985, pt II, p.62. 7. Cf. Auchincloss, A Writer's Capital, p.28. Referring to his boyhood years Auchincloss confirmed this aspect in an interview: 'It always seemed to me that, in essence, when I was a child, every single thing that was supposed to be fun by my parents was awful, odious. And that all the things that I enjoyed and found delightful were regarded as bad' (interview with Auchincloss, 2 July 1987). Notes 231 8. Cf. Auchincloss, A Writer's Capital, pp. 36, 110. Other references to psycho-religious images can be found in A Writer's Capital, pp.45, 80,88. 9. Eleanor Bovee to Dr Endicott Peabody, 22 Apr 1929. The corres pondence with Peabody quoted here and below is in the Groton School Archives. 10. Oliver La Farge, Raw Material (Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 1945) p.13. The quotations in the following paragraph are also from La Farge's chapter about his Groton experience - Raw Material, pp.7-22. 11. LA to PSA, [c. 8 Sep 1945]. 12. Auchincloss to Oliver La Farge, 9 Sep 1945 (Oliver La Farge Collection, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, the Univer sity of Texas at Austin). 13. Bovee sixth-form school record, and application statement of Auchincloss, submitted to Groton School, 22 April 1929 (Groton School Archives). 14. Record of physical examination for admission to Groton, 3 and 4 June 1929 (Groton School Archives). 15. Auchincloss to La Farge, 9 Sep 1945. 16. LA to PSA [c. 8 Sep 1945]. 17. Ibid. 18. L. C. Z. [Louis C. Zahner], 'Form History', The Groton School Year Book 1935 (Groton, Mass.: Groton School sixth form, [1935]) pp. 34, 42,44. 19. Auchincloss to La Farge, 9 Sep 1945. 20. Endicott Peabody to Priscilla Stanton Auchincloss, 3 Dec 1930. 21. Auchincloss to La Farge, 9 Sep 1945. 22. The Groton School Year Book 1935, p.71. 23. Auchincloss, 'Editorial', The Grotonian, LI (Oct 1934) 3-5. 24. Auchincloss, 'Editorial', The Grotonian, LI (Christmas 1934) 77. 25. Auchincloss, 'Editorial', The Grotonian, LI (Mar 1935) 147-8.

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