Louis Auchincloss: The Growth of a Novelist

"American studies" however diversely defined has been dominated by the preoccupations of scholars in the United states, for whom the discovery of a "usable past" and the definition and redefinition of literary tradition went hand in hand with the changing agendas of nationalism. Foreign writers and scholars have occasionally made significant contributions to the debate in the United States, but they have seldom possessed a collective sense of the uniqueness of their perspective upon American civilization. This series is designed to foster a distinctively "European" perspective upon American culture. It will contain books which range widely across disciplines. There is much talk of the end of the Cold War and an increased concern at the ecological crisis of industrial societies. The rapidity of social and political change around the world, and the extent to which the American people are themselves in the midst of a muddled and sometimes contradictory reappraisal of the very foundations of the post-war political settlement, have begun to raise questions about literature and culture and their relations in the social order. The contributors to the series will not necessarily all be Europeans, nor will they speak with a single voice about America and its culture. The present study, treats Auchincloss's work and career chronologically, and combines the treatment of individual novels, stories and essay collections with an account of Auchincloss's life. It begins with Auchincloss's formative years, studies his juvenile writings, and discusses his development into a published novelist. Auchincloss's postwar career is divided into four periods which stand out thematically, stylistically, and biographically. Throughout the treatment of the postwar writings, the emphasis is on Auchincloss's novels; reference is made to the collections of short stories and nonfiction only when this seems profitable in interpreting his career. Besides this interpretation of Auchincloss's career, the aim of this study is to shed light on Louis Auchincloss's stature as a postwar American writer.