With few exceptions, narratives of upper class America have been written by outsiders, infiltrators, muckrakers, or hangers-on. This coming-of-age story, edited and with afterword by William C. Codington, has been written by a genuine insider. Front cover: "Between them was a portrait of Isaac Leigh, Philadelphia Quaker and abolitionist, whose resemblance to me most of the family called 'uncanny.' It was painted by Robert Charles Leslie, an American who studied under Benjamin West in London."