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 1957 and has three sons, John, Blake, and Andrew. Far from homogeneous and far from small, the social world of these families and their affluent friends and acquaintances has provided Louis Auchincloss with a rich gallery of characters and a full range of fictional conflicts. Educated at the Bovee School for Boys and at Groton, Auchincloss matriculated at Yale in 1935 and at the University of Virginia Law School in 1938.

During World War II he served in the Naval Intelligence in the Panama Canal Zone and as gunnery officer aboard the U.S.S. Moonstone. Later he served as commander of an L.S.T. in England, France, and...