Nine previously unpublished stories from the master storyteller of America"s moneyed class "A superb short story writer . . . Not since Dreiser has an American writer had so much to tell us about the role of money in our lives." -- Gore Vidal "When it comes to the minute social differences and unexpected human conflicts that can be the life of fiction, there is simply no one else like him." -- Alfred Kazin Louis Auchincloss has been described as "one of the best writers alive" and as "a psychologist, social observer, and historian rolled into one." In his thirteenth work of short fiction, The Anniversary and Other Stories, he once again assembles a masterful collection, bringing his keen insight and great understanding to the moral dilemmas of America"s high society. These nine wonderfully nuanced tales center on people looking back on the sweep of their lives. Crisscrossing a tumultuous century, their stories evoke lives both blessed and cursed by good fortune and reveal with aching clarity the ethical conflicts of this rich milieu. Here are vignettes that capture the loves and jealousies of marriage and friendship, that recall days of a rarefied aristocracy and hint at a new, emerging 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 keeps getting stuck over his wife"s five-year affair. Whether these stories concern a savvy courtesan, a repentant headmaster, or any of a dozen other memorable characters, they offer a soulful glimpse into an uncommon world -- and all the while surprise us with their universal themes of passion, betrayal, and redemption. A member of the Academy of Arts and Letters and the author of fifty-five books of fiction and nonfiction, Louis Auchincloss lives in New York City. He is the author of, among other works, The Rector of Justin.