Louis Stanton Auchincloss was born on September 27, 1917 in Lawrence, New York. to Joseph and Priscilla Auchincloss. Auchincloss attended Groton and Yale, and received a degree from the University of Virginia Law School in 1941. He was hired by the New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell later that year. In 1942 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served in Europe and the Pacific in World War II. After the war he returned to New York, resumed his law practice, and later became a partner in the firm of Hawkins, Delafield & Wood.

In his spare time he began to write. His first book, "The Indifferent Children", was published in 1947 under the pseudonym Andrew Lee. Known for his works of fiction chronicling America's patrician class, he also published several works of non-fiction such as his biography of Theodore Roosevelt and his memoir, "A Writer's Capital". Auchincloss wrote an average of a book a year, totaling 60 books in all before his death in Manhattan on January 26, 2010, aged 92.