well-born

His well-born characters spoke as if they had been transplanted against their will from a Henry James novel to the later 20th century.

Appointed to turn the Yale School of Drama into something more than an academy for well-born thespians, he modernized the training of theater artists by assembling a faculty of leading artists and uncompromising intellectuals.

But they were also politicians, self-serving and ambitious, often well-born mediocrities flying high above their general level of talent.

Well-born Hawaiians celebrate their connections and ancestry with organizations such as the Kaahumanu Society, named for Kamehameha I’s wife.

Mr. Malcolm is known for being rich, well-born and kind of a jerk, as evidenced by the titular list he’s compiled — a compendium of all the qualities he deems necessary in a wife.