Louis Auchincloss's clear and accessible style, dry wit, compelling plots, psychological acuity, and strong moral sense characterize his short fiction as it surveys the troubled lives of its generally "privileged" characters. During the second half of...

Louis Stanton Auchincloss was born in Lawrence, New York, on 27 September 1917 and was reared in New York City. Related by birth to the prominent and wealthy Russell, Howland, Stanton, and Dixon families in New York City, he married Adele Lawrence in...

LOVE WITHOUT WINGS Some Friendships in Literature and Politics By Louis Auchincloss Houghton Mifflin, 187 pp., $18.95 One might wonder if Louis Auchincloss, author of 33 novels and 12 works of nonfiction (of which an astonishing 14 remain in print, and...

THE GOLDEN CALVES By Louis Auchincloss Houghton Mifflin. 213 pp. $17.95 PICASSO'S BIOGRAPHER, Ronald Penrose, quoted the artist as once saying that "if you want to kill a picture all you have to do is to hang it beautifully on a...

THE HEADMASTER’S DILEMMABy Louis Auchincloss Houghton Mifflin, 192 pages, $25 Louis Auchincloss’ fans will be happy to celebrate his 90th birthday later this month with The Headmaster’s Dilemma, a novel that puts his grand total at more than 60 books of assorted fiction and nonfiction....

BEGINNER’S GREEK By James Collins Little, Brown, 472 pages, $23.99 Now here’s a pretty fairy tale: The hero is reasonably handsome, chronically kind, invariably sensitive, excruciatingly honorable, infallibly Ivy League—and he helps invent the hedge fund! What a prince! What a savior of mankind. Have...

In the following chapter from his book-length study of Auchincloss's work, Dahl provides an overview of the author's short fiction. The critic summarizes the short story collections, then analyzes several stories that he feels are representative of Auchincloss's most accomplished work in the short fiction genre.

The author of such works as Visit to a Small Planet ( 1956), Myra Breckenridge (1968), Burr (1973), and Lincoln (1984), Vidal is an American author particularly noted for his historical novels and iconoclastic essays. In his work he examines the plight of modern humanity as it exists in a valueless world and amid the world's corrupt institutions. Vidal's work in all genres is marked by urbane wit and brilliant technique. Here, he takes issue with other critics, especially Granville Hicks, who...

In this excerpt from an interview conducted between October 1985 and July 1987, Auchincloss discusses various subjects related to his work, including characterization and the evolution of his career. The author also comments on his relationship with other writers and his opinion of contemporary society and the world of letters.