Truman Garcia Capote[1] (/kəˈpoʊti/kə-POH-tee;[2] bornTruman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, and he is regarded as one of the founders ofNew Journalism, along withGay Talese,Hunter S. Thompson,Norman Mailer,Joan Didion, andTom Wolfe.[3] His work and his life story have been adapted into and have been the subject of more than 20 films and television productions.
Capote had a troubled childhood caused by his parents' divorce, a long absence from his mother, and multiple moves. He was planning to become a writer by the time he was eight years old,[4] and he honed his writing ability throughout his childhood. He began his professional career writing short stories. The critical success of "Miriam" (1945) attracted the attention ofRandom House publisherBennett Cerf and resulted in a contract to write the novelOther Voices, Other Rooms (1948). He achieved widespread acclaim withBreakfast at Tiffany's (1958)—a novella about a fictional New Yorkcafé society girl named Holly Golightly, and thetrue crime novelIn Cold Blood (1966)—a journalistic work about themurder of a Kansas farm family in their home. Capote spent six years writing the latter, aided by his lifelong friendHarper Lee, who wroteTo Kill a Mockingbird (1960).[5]
Brick ruins outline the "spreading old house" inMonroeville, Alabama, that was the boyhood home of Truman Capote and the setting for his 1956 story "A Christmas Memory".
Truman Capote was born atTouro Infirmary inNew Orleans, Louisiana, to Lillie Mae Faulk (1905–1954) and salesman Archulus Persons (1897–1981).[2] He was sent toMonroeville, Alabama, where, for the following four to five years, he was raised by his mother's relatives. He formed a fast bond with his mother's distant relative, Nanny Rumbley Faulk, whom Truman called "Sook". "Her face is remarkable – not unlikeLincoln's, craggy like that, and tinted by sun and wind", is how Capote described Sook in "A Christmas Memory" (1956). In Monroeville, Capote was a neighbor and friend ofHarper Lee, who would also go on to become an acclaimed author and a lifelong friend of Capote's. Lee'sTo Kill a Mockingbird likely modelsDill's characterization upon Capote.[6][7][8]
As a lonely child, Capote taught himself to read and write before he entered his first year of school.[9] Capote was often seen at age five carrying his dictionary and notepad, and began writing fiction at age 11.[10] He was given the nickname "Bulldog" around this age.[11]
On Saturdays, he made trips from Monroeville to the nearby city ofMobile on theGulf Coast, and at one point submitted a short story, "Old Mrs. Busybody", to a children's writing contest sponsored by theMobile Press Register. Capote received recognition for his early work fromThe Scholastic Art & Writing Awards in 1936.[12]
In 1932, he moved to New York City to live with his mother and her second husband, José García Capote. José was a former Spanish colonel who became a landlord atUnion de Reyes, Cuba.[13]
Of his early days, Capote related, "I was writing really sort of serious when I was about eleven. I say seriously in the sense that like other kids go home and practice the violin or the piano or whatever, I used to go home from school every day, and I would write for about three hours. I was obsessed by it."[14] In 1932, he attended theTrinity School in New York City. He then attended St. Joseph Military Academy. In 1939, the Capote family moved toGreenwich, Connecticut, and Truman attendedGreenwich High School, where he wrote for both the school's literary journal,The Green Witch, and the school newspaper. When they returned to New York City in 1941, he attended the Franklin School, anUpper West Side private school now known as theDwight School, and graduated in 1942.[15] That was the end of his formal education.
While still attending Franklin in 1942, Capote began working as acopy boy in the art department atThe New Yorker,[15] a job he held for two years before being fired for angering poetRobert Frost.[16] Years later, he reflected, "Not a very grand job, for all it really involved was sorting cartoons and clipping newspapers. Still, I was fortunate to have it, especially since I was determined never to set a studious foot inside a college classroom. I felt that either one was or wasn't a writer, and no combination of professors could influence the outcome. I still think I was correct, at least in my own case." He left his job to live with relatives in Alabama and began writing his first novel,Summer Crossing.[17]
He was called forinduction into the armed services during World War II, but he later told a friend that he was "turned down for everything, including theWACS". He later explained that he was found to be "too neurotic".[2]
Capote based the character of Idabel inOther Voices, Other Rooms on hisMonroeville, Alabama neighbor and best friend,Harper Lee. Capote once acknowledged this: "Mr. and Mrs. Lee, Harper Lee's mother and father, lived very near. She was my best friend. Did you ever read her book,To Kill a Mockingbird? I'm a character in that book, which takes place in the same small town in Alabama where we lived. Her father was a lawyer, and she and I used to go to trials all the time as children. We went to the trials instead of going to the movies."[18] After Lee was awarded thePulitzer Prize in 1961 and Capote publishedIn Cold Blood in 1966, the authors became increasingly distant from each other.[19]
Capote began writing short stories around the age of eight.[20] In 2013, the Swiss publisher Peter Haag discovered fourteen unpublished stories, written when Capote was a teenager, in theNew York Public Library Archives. Random House published these in 2015, under the titleThe Early Stories of Truman Capote.[21]
During an interview forThe Paris Review in 1957, Capote said this of his short story technique:
Since each story presents its own technical problems, obviously one can't generalize about them on a two-times-two-equals-four basis. Finding the right form for your story is simply to realize the mostnatural way of telling the story. The test of whether or not a writer has divined the natural shape of his story is just this: after reading it, can you imagine it differently, or does it silence your imagination and seem to you absolute and final? As an orange is final. As an orange is something nature has made just right.[23]
Random House, the publisher of his novelOther Voices, Other Rooms (see below), moved to capitalize on this novel's success with the publication ofA Tree of Night and Other Stories in 1949. In addition to "Miriam", this collection also includes "Shut a Final Door", first published inThe Atlantic Monthly (August 1947).
AfterA Tree of Night, Capote published a collection of his travel writings,Local Color (1950), which included nine essays originally published in magazines between 1946 and 1950.
"A Christmas Memory", a largely autobiographical story taking place in the 1930s, was published inMademoiselle magazine in 1956. It was issued as a hard-cover standalone edition in 1966, and has since been published in many editions and anthologies.
Some time in the 1940s, Capote wrote a novel set in New York City about the summer romance of a socialite and a parking lot attendant.[24] Capote later claimed to have destroyed the manuscript of this novel; but twenty years after his death, in 2004, it came to light that the manuscript had been retrieved from the trash back in 1950 by a house sitter at an apartment formerly occupied by Capote.[25] The novel waspublished in 2006 byRandom House under the titleSummer Crossing.
As of 2013, the film rights toSummer Crossing had been purchased by actressScarlett Johansson, who reportedly planned to direct the adaptation.[26]
The critical success of one of his short stories, "Miriam" (1945), attracted the attention of the publisherBennett Cerf, resulting in a contract with Random House to write a novel. With an advance of $1,500, Capote returned to Monroeville and beganOther Voices, Other Rooms, continuing to work on the manuscript in New Orleans,Saratoga Springs, New York, andNorth Carolina, eventually completing it inNantucket, Massachusetts. It was published in 1948. Capote described this symbolic tale as "a poetic explosion in highly suppressed emotion". The novel is a semi-autobiographical refraction of Capote'sAlabama childhood. Decades later, writing inThe Dogs Bark (1973), he commented:
Other Voices, Other Rooms was an attempt to exorcise demons, an unconscious, altogether intuitive attempt, for I was not aware, except for a few incidents and descriptions, of its being in any serious degree autobiographical. Rereading it now, I find such self-deception unpardonable.
The story focuses on thirteen-year-old Joel Knox following the loss of his mother. Joel is sent fromNew Orleans to live with his father, who abandoned him at the time of his birth. Arriving at Skully's Landing, a vast, decaying mansion in rural Alabama, Joel meets his sullen stepmother Amy, debauchedtransvestite Randolph, and defiant Idabel, a girl who becomes his friend. He also sees a spectral "queer lady" with "fat dribbling curls" watching him from a top window. Despite Joel's queries, the whereabouts of his father remains a mystery. When he finally is allowed to see his father, Joel is stunned to find he is a quadriplegic, having tumbled down a flight of stairs after being inadvertently shot by Randolph. Joel runs away with Idabel but catches pneumonia and eventually returns to the Landing, where he is nursed back to health by Randolph. The implication in the final paragraph is that the "queer lady" beckoning from the window is Randolph in his oldMardi Gras costume. Gerald Clarke, inCapote: A Biography (1988) described the conclusion:
Finally, when he goes to join the queer lady in the window, Joel accepts his destiny, which is to be homosexual, to always hear other voices and live in other rooms. Yet acceptance is not a surrender; it is a liberation. "I am me", he whoops. "I am Joel, we are the same people." So, in a sense, had Truman rejoiced when he made peace with his own identity.
Halma's photograph of Capote on the back cover ofOther Voices, Other Rooms
Other Voices, Other Rooms madeThe New York Times bestseller list and stayed there for nine weeks, selling more than 26,000 copies. The promotion and controversy surrounding this novel catapulted Capote to fame. A 1947 Harold Halma photograph used to promote the book showed a reclining Capote gazing fiercely into the camera. Gerald Clarke, inCapote: A Biography (1988), wrote, "The famous photograph: Harold Halma's picture on the dustjacket ofOther Voices, Other Rooms (1948) caused as much comment and controversy as the prose inside. Truman claimed that the camera had caught him off guard, but in fact he had posed himself and was responsible for both the picture and the publicity." Much of the early attention to Capote centered on different interpretations of this photograph, which was viewed as a suggestive pose by some. According to Clarke, the photo created an "uproar" and gave Capote "not only the literary, but also the public personality he had always wanted". The photo made a huge impression on the twenty-year-oldAndy Warhol, who often talked about it and wrote fan letters to Capote.[27] When Warhol moved to New York in 1949, he made numerous attempts to meet Capote, and Warhol's fascination with the author led to Warhol's first New York one-man show,Fifteen Drawings Based on the Writings of Truman Capote at theHugo Gallery (June 16 – July 3, 1952).[28]
When the photograph was reprinted along with reviews in magazines and newspapers, some readers were amused, but others were outraged and offended. TheLos Angeles Times reported that Capote looked "as if he were dreamily contemplating some outrage against conventional morality". The novelistMerle Miller issued a complaint about the photograph at a publishing forum, and it was satirized in the third issue ofMad (making Capote one of the first four celebrities to be spoofed inMad). The humoristMax Shulman struck an identical pose for the dustjacket photo on his collection,Max Shulman's Large Economy Size (1948). The Broadway stage revueNew Faces (and the subsequent film version) featured a skit in whichRonny Graham parodied Capote, deliberately copying his pose in the Halma photograph. Random House featured the Halma photograph in its "This is Truman Capote" ads, and large blowups were displayed in bookstore windows. Walking on Fifth Avenue, Halma overheard two middle-aged women looking at a Capote blowup in the window of a bookstore. When one woman said, "I'm telling you: he's just young", the other woman responded, "And I'm telling you, if he isn't young, he's dangerous!" Capote delighted in retelling this anecdote.
In fall of 1952, the same year as his first play, film producerDavid O. Selznick hired Capote alongside two Hollywood screenwriters for the script ofTerminal Station. A few months later in early 1953,John Huston hired him forBeat the Devil.[29] In 1960, while writingIn Cold Blood,Jack Clayton approached him to rewrite the script forThe Innocents. Capote set aside his novel and in eight weeks produced the script used for the final film.[30]
Traveling through theSoviet Union with a touring production ofPorgy and Bess, he produced a series of articles forThe New Yorker that became his first book-length work of nonfiction,The Muses Are Heard (1956).
In this period he also wrote an autobiographical essay forHoliday Magazine—one of his personal favorites—about his life in Brooklyn Heights in the late 1950s, titledBrooklyn Heights: A Personal Memoir (1959). In November 2015, The Little Bookroom issued a new coffee-table edition of that work, which includes David Attie's previously unpublished portraits of Capote as well as Attie'sstreet photography taken in connection with the essay, entitledBrooklyn: A Personal Memoir, With The Lost Photographs of David Attie.[31] This edition was well-reviewed in America and overseas,[32][33] and was also a finalist for a 2016 Indie Book Award.[34]
In 1961 he signed an advertisement for theFair Play for Cuba Committee. He later expressed regret for this, as he had genuinely believed Castro was not a communist.[35]
The novella itself was originally supposed to be published inHarper's Bazaar's July 1958 issue, several months before its publication in book form by Random House. The publisher ofHarper's Bazaar,the Hearst Corporation, began demanding changes to Capote's tart language, which he reluctantly made because he had liked the photos byDavid Attie and the design work by Harper's art directorAlexey Brodovitch that were to accompany the text.[36] But despite his compliance, Hearst ordered Harper's not to run the novella anyway. Its language and subject matter were still deemed "not suitable", and there was concern thatTiffany's, a major advertiser, would react negatively.[37] An outraged Capote resold the novella toEsquire for its November 1958 issue; by his own account, he toldEsquire he would only be interested in doing so if Attie's original series of photos was included, but to his disappointment, the magazine ran just a single full-page image of Attie's (another was later used as the cover of at least one paperback edition of the novella).[38] The novella was published by Random House shortly afterwards.
For Capote,Breakfast at Tiffany's was a turning point, as he explained to Roy Newquist (Counterpoint, 1964):
I think I've had two careers. One was the career of precocity, the young person who published a series of books that were really quite remarkable. I can even read them now and evaluate them favorably, as though they were the work of a stranger ... My second career began, I guess it really began withBreakfast at Tiffany's. It involves a different point of view, a different prose style to some degree. Actually, the prose style is an evolvement from one to the other – a pruning and thinning-out to a more subdued, clearer prose. I don't find it as evocative, in many respects, as the other, or even as original, but it is more difficult to do. But I'm nowhere near reaching what I want to do, where I want to go. Presumably this new book is as close as I'm going to get, at least strategically.[39]
The "new book",In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences (1965), was inspired by a 300-word article that ran in the November 16, 1959, issue ofThe New York Times. The story described the unexplained murder of the Clutter family in ruralHolcomb, Kansas, and quoted the local sheriff as saying, "This is apparently the case of a psychopathic killer."[40] Fascinated by this brief news item, Capote traveled with Harper Lee to Holcomb and visited the scene of the massacre. Over the course of the next few years, he became acquainted with everyone involved in the investigation and most of the residents of the small town and the area. Rather than taking notes during interviews, Capote committed conversations to memory and immediately wrote quotes as soon as an interview ended. He claimed his memory retention for verbatim conversations had been tested at "over 90%".[41] Lee made inroads into the community by befriending the wives of those Capote wanted to interview.
I spent four years on and off in that part of Western Kansas there during the research for that book and then the film. What was it like? It was very lonely. And difficult. Although I made a lot of friends there. I had to, otherwise I never could have researched the book properly. The reason was I wanted to make an experiment in journalistic writing, and I was looking for a subject that would have sufficient proportions. I'd already done a great deal of narrative journalistic writing in this experimental vein in the 1950s forThe New Yorker ... But I was looking for something very special that would give me a lot of scope. I had come up with two or three different subjects and each of them for whatever reasons was a dry run after I'd done a lot of work on them. And one day I was gleaningThe New York Times, and way on the back page I saw this very small item. And it just said, "Kansas Farmer Slain. Family of Four is Slain in Kansas". A little item just about like that. And the community was completely nonplussed, and it was this total mystery of how it could have been, and what happened. And I don't know what it was. I think it was that I knew nothing about Kansas or that part of the country or anything. And I thought, "Well, that will be a fresh perspective for me" ... And I said, "Well, I'm just going to go out there and just look around and see what this is." And so maybe this is the subject I've been looking for. Maybe a crime of this kind is ... in a small town. It has no publicity around it and yet had some strange ordinariness about it. So I went out there, and I arrived just two days after the Clutters' funeral. The whole thing was a complete mystery and was for two and a half months. Nothing happened. I stayed there and kept researching it and researching it and got very friendly with the various authorities and the detectives on the case. But I never knew whether it was going to be interesting or not. You know, I mean anything could have happened. They could have never caught the killers. Or if they had caught the killers ... it may have turned out to be something completely uninteresting to me. Or maybe they would never have spoken to me or wanted to cooperate with me. But as it so happened, they did catch them. In January, the case was solved, and then I made very close contact with these two boys and saw them very often over the next four years until they were executed. But I never knew ... when I was even halfway through the book, when I had been working on it for a year and a half, I didn't honestly know whether I would go on with it or not, whether it would finally evolve itself into something that would be worth all that effort. Because it was a tremendous effort.[42]
In Cold Blood was published in 1966 by Random House after being serialized inThe New Yorker. The "nonfiction novel", as Capote labeled it, brought him literary acclaim and became an international bestseller, but Capote would never complete another novel after it.
A feud between Capote and British arts criticKenneth Tynan erupted in the pages ofThe Observer after Tynan's review ofIn Cold Blood implied that Capote wanted an execution so the book would have an effective ending. Tynan wrote:
We are talking, in the long run, about responsibility; the debt that a writer arguably owes to those who provide him – down to the last autobiographical parentheses – with his subject matter and his livelihood ... For the first time an influential writer of the front rank has been placed in a position of privileged intimacy with criminals about to die, and – in my view – done less than he might have to save them. The focus narrows sharply down on priorities: Does the work come first, or does life? An attempt to help (by supplying new psychiatric testimony) might easily have failed: what one misses is any sign that it was ever contemplated.[43]
In Cold Blood brought Capote much praise from the literary community, but there were some who questioned certain events as reported in the book. Writing inEsquire in 1966, Phillip K. Tompkins noted factual discrepancies after he traveled to Kansas and spoke to some of the same people interviewed by Capote. In a telephone interview with Tompkins, Mrs. Meier denied that she heardPerry cry and that she held his hand as described by Capote.In Cold Blood indicates that Meier and Perry became close, yet she told Tompkins she spent little time with Perry and did not talk much with him. Tompkins concluded:
Capote has, in short, achieved a work of art. He has told exceedingly well a tale of high terror in his own way. But, despite the brilliance of his self-publicizing efforts, he has made both a tactical and a moral error that will hurt him in the short run. By insisting that "every word" of his book is true he has made himself vulnerable to those readers who are prepared to examine seriously such a sweeping claim.
True crime writerJack Olsen also commented on the fabrications:
I recognized it as a work of art, but I know fakery when I see it," Olsen says. "Capote completely fabricated quotes and whole scenes ... The book made something like $6 million in 1960s money, and nobody wanted to discuss anything wrong with a moneymaker like that in the publishing business." Nobody except Olsen and a few others. His criticisms were quoted inEsquire, to which Capote replied, "Jack Olsen is just jealous.""That was true, of course," Olsen says, "I was jealous – all that money? I'd been assigned the Clutter case by Harper & Row until we found out that Capote and his cousin [sic], Harper Lee, had been already on the case in Dodge City for six months." Olsen explains, "That book did two things. It made true crime an interesting, successful, commercial genre, but it also began the process of tearing it down. I blew the whistle in my own weak way. I'd only published a couple of books at that time – but since it was such a superbly written book, nobody wanted to hear about it.[44]
Alvin Dewey, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation detective portrayed inIn Cold Blood, later said that the last scene, in which he visits the Clutters' graves, was Capote's invention, while other Kansas residents whom Capote interviewed have claimed they or their relatives were mischaracterized or misquoted.[45] Dewey and his wife Marie became friends of Capote during the time Capote spent in Kansas gathering research for his book.[46] Dewey gave Capote access to the case files and other items related to the investigation and to the members of the Clutter family, including Nancy Clutter's diary.[46] When the film version of the book was made in 1967, Capote arranged for Marie Dewey to receive $10,000 fromColumbia Pictures as a paid consultant to the making of the film.[46]
Another work described by Capote as "nonfiction" was later reported to have been largely fabricated. In a 1992 piece in theSunday Times, reporters Peter and Leni Gillman investigated the source of "Handcarved Coffins", the story in Capote's last work,Music for Chameleons, subtitled "a nonfiction account of an American crime". They found no reported series of American murders in the same town that included all of the details Capote described – the sending of miniature coffins, a rattlesnake murder, a decapitation, etc. Instead, they found that a few of the details closely mirrored an unsolved case on which investigator Al Dewey had worked. Their conclusion was that Capote had invented the rest of the story, including his meetings with the suspected killer, Quinn.[47]
Now more sought after than ever, Capote wrote occasional brief articles for magazines, and also entrenched himself more deeply in the world of thejet set. Gore Vidal once observed, "Truman Capote has tried, with some success, to get into a world that I have tried, with some success, to get out of."[48]
In the late 1960s, he became friendly withLee Radziwill, the sister ofJacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Radziwill was an aspiring actress and had been panned for her performance in a production ofThe Philadelphia Story in Chicago. Capote was commissioned to write the teleplay for a 1967 television production starring Radziwill: an adaptation of the classicOtto Preminger filmLaura (1944). The adaptation, and Radziwill's performance in particular, received indifferent reviews and poor ratings; arguably, it was Capote's first major professional setback. Radziwill supplanted the olderBabe Paley as Capote's primary female companion in public throughout the better part of the 1970s.
On November 28, 1966, in honor ofThe Washington Post publisherKatharine Graham, Capote hosted a now-legendary masked ball, called theBlack and White Ball, in the Grand Ballroom of New York City'sPlaza Hotel. It was considered the social event of not only that season but of many to follow, withThe New York Times and other publications giving it considerable coverage. Capote dangled the prized invitations for months, snubbing early supporters such as fellow Southern writerCarson McCullers as he determined who was "in" and who was "out".[49]
Despite the assertion earlier in life that one "lost an IQ point for every year spent on the West Coast", he purchased a home inPalm Springs and began to indulge in a more aimless life and heavy drinking. This resulted in bitter quarreling withJack Dunphy, with whom he had shared anonexclusive relationship since the 1950s. Their partnership changed form and continued as a nonsexual one, and they were separated during much of the 1970s.
Capote never finished another novel afterIn Cold Blood. The dearth of new prose and other failures, including a rejected screenplay forParamount Pictures's 1974 adaptation ofThe Great Gatsby, were counteracted by Capote's frequenting of the talk show circuit. In 1972, Capote accompaniedThe Rolling Stones on theirfirst American tour since 1969 as a correspondent forRolling Stone. He ultimately refused to write the article, so the magazine recouped its interests by publishing in April 1973 an interview of the author conducted by Andy Warhol. A collection of previously published essays and reportage,The Dogs Bark: Public People and Private Places, appeared later that year.
In July 1973, Capote met John O'Shea, the middle-aged vice president of aMarine Midland Bank branch on Long Island, while visiting a New York bathhouse. The married father of three did not identify as homosexual or bisexual, perceiving his visits as being a "kind of masturbation".[50] However, O'Shea found Capote's fortune alluring and harbored aspirations to become a professional writer. After consummating their relationship in Palm Springs, the two engaged in a war of jealousy and manipulation for the remainder of the decade. Longtime friends were appalled when O'Shea, who was officially employed as Capote's manager, attempted to take control of the author's literary and business interests.
Through his jet set social life Capote had been gathering observations for a tell-all novel, eventually to be published asAnswered Prayers. The book, which had been in the planning stages since 1958, was intended to be the American equivalent ofMarcel Proust'sIn Search of Lost Time and a culmination of the "nonfiction novel" format. Initially scheduled for publication in 1968, the novel was eventually delayed, at Capote's insistence, to 1972. Because of the delay, he was forced to return money received for the film rights to20th Century Fox. Capote spoke about the novel in interviews, but continued to postpone his manuscript's delivery date.
Capote permittedEsquire to publish four chapters of the unfinished novel in 1975 and 1976. The first to appear, "Mojave", ran as a self-contained short story and was favorably received, but the second, "La Côte Basque 1965", based in part on the dysfunctional personal lives of Capote's friendsWilliam S. Paley andBabe Paley, generated controversy. The issue featuring "La Côte Basque" sold out immediately upon publication; its much-discussed betrayal of confidences alienated Capote from his established base of middle-aged, wealthy female friends, who feared the intimate and often sordid details of their ostensibly glamorous lives would be exposed to the public. Another two chapters – "Unspoiled Monsters" and "Kate McCloud" – appeared subsequently. These texts were intended to form the long opening section of the novel. They displayed a marked shift in narrative voice, introduced a more elaborate plot structure, and together formed a novella-length mosaic of fictionalized memoir and gossip. "Unspoiled Monsters", which by itself was almost as long asBreakfast at Tiffany's, contained a thinly veiled satire ofTennessee Williams, whose friendship with Capote had become strained.
As much as Capote had completed of the novel was published after his death asAnswered Prayers: The Unfinished Novel in 1986 in the UK and in the US in 1987. It comprised "Unspoiled Monsters", "Kate McCloud", and "La Cote Basque 1965", but not "Mojave", which Capote had "removed from the novel's master plan" and instead published in the collectionMusic for Chameleons in 1980.[51]
"La Côte Basque 1965" was published as a standalone chapter inEsquire magazine in November 1975. The catty beginning to his still-unfinished novel,Answered Prayers, was the catalyst of Capote's social suicide. Many of Capote's circle of high-society female friends, whom he called his "swans", were featured in the text, some under pseudonyms and others by their real names. The chapter is said to have revealed the dirty secrets of these women,[52] and aired the "dirty laundry" of New York City's elite. As a result Capote was ostracized from New York society and from many of his former friends.[53]
"La Côte Basque" begins as Jonesy, the main character, said to be based on a mixture of Capote himself and Herbert Clutter,[54] the serial killer victim at the center ofIn Cold Blood, has a rendezvous with Lady Ina Coolbirth on a New York City street. Described as "an American married to a British chemicals tycoon and a lot of woman in every way",[55] she is widely rumoured to be based on New York socialiteSlim Keith. Coolbirth invites Jonesy to lunch atLa Côte Basque. A gossipy tale of New York's elite ensues.
The characters ofGloria Vanderbilt andCarol Matthau are encountered first, the two women gossiping aboutPrincess Margaret,Prince Charles and the rest of theBritish royal family. An awkward moment occurs when Vanderbilt has a run-in with her first husband and fails to recognize him. It is only at Mrs. Matthau's prompting that Vanderbilt realizes who he is. Both women brush the incident aside and chalk it up to ancient history.
The characters ofLee Radziwill andJacqueline Kennedy Onassis are then encountered when they enter the restaurant together. Sisters, they draw the attention of the room although they speak only to each other. Coolbirth describes Lee as "marvelously made, like a Tanagra figurine" and Jacqueline as "photogenic" yet "unrefined, exaggerated".[56]
The character of Ann Hopkins is then introduced when she surreptitiously walks into the restaurant and sits down with a pastor. Hopkins is likened toAnn Woodward. Coolbirth relates the story of how Hopkins murdered her husband. When he threatened to divorce her, she began cultivating a rumour that a burglar was harassing their neighbourhood. The official police report says that while she and her husband were sleeping in separate bedrooms, Mrs. Hopkins heard someone enter her bedroom. In her panic, she grabbed her gun and shot the intruder; unbeknownst to her the intruder was in fact her husband, David Hopkins (orWilliam Woodward, Jr.). Ina Coolbirth suggests however, that Mr. Hopkins was in fact shot in the shower; such is the wealth and power of the Hopkins family that any charges or whispers of murder simply floated away at the inquest. It is rumoured that Ann Woodward was warned prematurely of the publication and content of Capote's "La Côte Basque" and proceeded to kill herself with cyanide as a result.[52]
An incident regarding the character of Sidney Dillon (orWilliam S. Paley) is then discussed between Jonesy and Mrs. Coolbirth. Sidney Dillon is said to have told Ina Coolbirth this story because they have a history as former lovers. One evening while Cleo Dillon (Babe Paley) was out of the city, in Boston, Sidney Dillon attended an event by himself at which he was seated next to the wife of a prominent New York Governor. The two began to flirt and eventually went home together. While Ina suggests that Sidney Dillon loves his wife, it is his inexhaustible need for acceptance by haute New York society that motivates him to be unfaithful. Sidney Dillon and the woman sleep together, and afterwards Mr. Dillon discovers a very large blood stain on the sheets, which represents her mockery of him. Mr. Dillon then spends the rest of the night and early morning washing the sheet by hand, with scalding water in an attempt to conceal his unfaithfulness from his wife who is due to arrive home the same morning. In the end, Dillon falls asleep on a damp sheet and wakes up to a note from his wife telling him she had arrived while he was sleeping, did not want to wake him, and that she would see him at home.
The aftermath of the publication of "La Côte Basque" is said to have pushed Truman Capote to new levels of drug abuse and alcoholism, mainly because he claimed not to have anticipated the backlash it would cause in his personal life.
Capote was in and out ofdrug rehabilitation clinics in the late 1970s, and news of his various breakdowns frequently reached the public.[57] During a 1978 on-air interview withStanley Siegel, an extraordinarily intoxicated Capote confessed he had been awake for 48 hours, and when Siegel asked "What's going to happen unless you lick this problem of drugs and alcohol?" Capote responded, "The obvious answer is that eventually, I mean, I'll kill myself...without meaning to."[58] The live broadcast made national headlines. One year later, feeling betrayed byLee Radziwill in a feud with perpetual nemesisGore Vidal, Capote arranged a return visit to Stanley Siegel's show, delivering a bizarrely comic performance revealing an incident wherein Vidal was thrown out of theKennedy White House due to intoxication (later refuted in detail by Vidal in his memoirPalimpsest). Capote also shared salacious details regarding the personal life of Radziwill and her sister,Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
Capote and artist Andy Warhol had mutual admiration for each other. They often partied together New York'sStudio 54 and Warhol painted Capote's portrait.[59] In 1979, Capote wrote a monthly column, "Conversations with Capote," for Warhol'sInterview magazine in exchange for the copyright.[59] Initially the pieces were to consist of tape-recorded conversations, but soon Capote eschewed the tape recorder in favor of semi-fictionalized "conversational portraits". These pieces formed the basis for the bestsellingMusic for Chameleons (1980).
In 1979, Capote underwent afacelift, lost weight, and experimented with hair transplants.[60][61] Despite this, Capote was unable to overcome his reliance upon drugs and liquor and had grown bored with New York by the beginning of the 1980s. After the revocation of his driver's license (the result of speeding near hisLong Island residence) and a hallucination-based seizure in 1980 that required hospitalization, Capote became fairly reclusive. These hallucinations continued unabated; medical scans eventually revealed that his brain mass had perceptibly shrunk.
On the rare occasions when he was lucid, he continued to promoteAnswered Prayers as being nearly complete and was reportedly planning a reprise of the Black and White Ball to be held either in Los Angeles or a more exotic locale in South America. In 1982, a new short story, "One Christmas", appeared in the December issue ofLadies' Home Journal; the following year it became, like its predecessorsA Christmas Memory andThe Thanksgiving Visitor, a holiday gift book. In 1983, "Remembering Tennessee", an essay in tribute toTennessee Williams, who had died in February of that year, appeared inPlayboy magazine.[63]
Truman Capote's marker at Westwood Village Memorial ParkTruman Capote and Jack Dunphy stone at Crooked Pond in the Long Pond Greenbelt inSouthampton, New York.
Capote died inBel Air, Los Angeles, on August 25, 1984.[64] According to the coroner's report, the cause of death was "liver disease complicated byphlebitis and multiple drug intoxication".[65] He died at the home of his old friendJoanne Carson, ex-wife of late-night TV hostJohnny Carson, on whose program Capote was a frequent guest.Gore Vidal responded to news of Capote's death by calling it "a wise career move".[66]
Capote was cremated and his remains were reportedly divided between Carson and Jack Dunphy (although Dunphy maintained that he received all the ashes).[67]Carson said she kept the ashes in an urn in the room where he died. The ashes were reported stolen during a Halloween party in 1988 along with $200,000 in jewels but were then returned six days later, having been found in a coiled-up garden hose on the back steps of Carson's Bel Air home.[67] The ashes were reportedly stolen again when taken to a production ofTru, but the thief was caught before leaving the theatre. Carson bought a crypt atWestwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.[67] Dunphy died in 1992, and in 1994, both his and Capote's ashes were reportedly scattered at Crooked Pond, betweenBridgehampton, New York, andSag Harbor, New York onLong Island, close toSagaponack, New York, where the two had maintained a property with individual houses for many years. Crooked Pond was chosen because money from the estate of Dunphy and Capote was donated to theNature Conservancy, which in turn used it to buy 20 acres around Crooked Pond in an area called "Long Pond Greenbelt". A stone marker indicates the spot where their mingled ashes were thrown into the pond.[68] In 2016, some of Capote's ashes previously owned by Joanne Carson were auctioned byJulien's Auctions.[69]
Capote also maintained the property inPalm Springs,[70] a condominium in Switzerland that was mostly occupied by Dunphy seasonally, and a primary residence at 860 United Nations Plaza in New York City. Capote's will provided that after Dunphy's death, a literary trust would be established, sustained by revenues from Capote's works, to fund various literary prizes, fellowships and scholarships, including theTruman Capote Award for Literary Criticism in Memory of Newton Arvin, commemorating not only Capote but also his friendNewton Arvin, theSmith College professor and critic who lost his job after his homosexuality was revealed.[71] As such, theTruman Capote Literary Trust was established in 1994, two years after Dunphy's death.
Capote was openlygay. Although Capote never embraced theGay Rights Movement, his own openness about homosexuality and his encouragement for openness in others made him an important player in the realm of gay rights.[72] In his piece "Capote and the Trillings: Homophobia and Literary Culture at Midcentury", Jeff Solomon details an encounter between Capote andLionel andDiana Trilling – two New York intellectuals and literary critics – in which Capote questioned the motives of Lionel, who had recently published a book onE. M. Forster but had ignored the author's homosexuality. Solomon argues:
When Capote confronts the Trillings on the train, he attacks their identity as literary and social critics committed to literature as a tool for social justice, capable of questioning both their own and their society's preconceptions, and sensitive to prejudice by virtue of their heritage and, in Diana's case, by her gender.[73]
Capote spent over two decades partnered withJack Dunphy, a fellow writer. In his book,"Dear Genius ..." A Memoir of My Life with Truman Capote, Dunphy attempts both to explain the Capote he knew and loved within their relationship and the very success-driven and, eventually, drug- and alcohol-addicted person who existed outside of their relationship.[76] Their separate living quarters allowed autonomy within the relationship and, as Dunphy admitted, "spared [him] the anguish of watching Capote drink and take drugs".[77] Their relationship ultimately became platonic after Truman's story "La Côte Basque, 1965" was published inEsquire in 1975, but their lives remained intertwined.[78] Dunphy was named the chief beneficiary in Capote's will.[78]
In 1973, Capote met John O'Shea, a married banker from Long Island, who became his business manager and lover.[78] They had a toxic relationship as both men were heavy drinkers. Reportedly, O'Shea would become verbally and emotionally abusive when intoxicated.[79]
Capote was often seen with his companion Bob MacBride, a computer engineer forIBM and sculptor.[80][81] In the bookThe Andy Warhol Diaries, Capote's friend Andy Warhol referred to MacBride as Capote's boyfriend and mentioned that MacBride had left his wife and children in a June 1978 diary entry.[59] Their relationship was a "bond of brothers rather than of lovers" according to MacBride.[59][82] They met at a bookstore in 1972, but Capote distanced himself from MacBride after he met O'Shea.[59] Capote rekindled his relationship with MacBride in 1978.[82]
Capote was well known for his distinctive, high-pitched voice and odd vocal mannerisms, his offbeat manner of dress, and his fabrications. He often claimed to intimately know people whom he had never met, such asGreta Garbo.[citation needed] He professed to have had numerous liaisons with men thought to be heterosexual, including, he claimed,Errol Flynn. He traveled in an eclectic array of social circles, hobnobbing with authors, critics, business tycoons,philanthropists, Hollywood and theatrical celebrities, royalty, and members ofhigh society, both in the U.S. and abroad. Part of his public persona was a longstanding rivalry with writerGore Vidal. Their rivalry promptedTennessee Williams to complain: "You would think they were running neck-and-neck for some fabulous gold prize." Apart from his favorite authors (Willa Cather,Isak Dinesen, andMarcel Proust), Capote had faint praise for other writers. However, one who did receive his favorable endorsement was journalistLacey Fosburgh, author ofClosing Time: The True Story of the Goodbar Murder (1977).
Capote's childhood is the focus of a permanent exhibit in Monroeville, Alabama's Old Courthouse Museum, covering his life in Monroeville with his Faulk cousins and how those early years are reflected in his writing.[83] The exhibit brings together photos, letters and memorabilia to paint a portrait of Capote's early life in Monroeville. Jennings Faulk Carter donated the collection to the Museum in 2005. The collection comprises 12 handwritten letters (1940s–60s) from Capote to his favorite aunt, Mary Ida Carter (Jennings' mother). Many of the items in the collection belonged to his mother and Virginia Hurd Faulk, Carter's cousin with whom Capote lived as a child.
Historical marker at the site of the house Truman Capote frequently visited in Monroeville, Alabama.
The exhibit features many references to Sook, but two items in particular are always favorites of visitors: Sook's "Coat of Many Colors" and Truman's baby blanket. Truman's first cousin recalls that as children, he and Truman never had trouble finding Sook in the darkened house on South Alabama Avenue because they simply looked for the bright colors of her coat. Truman's baby blanket is a "granny square" blanket Sook made for him. The blanket became one of Truman's most cherished possessions, and friends say he was seldom without it – even when traveling. In fact, he took the blanket with him when he flew from New York to Los Angeles to be with Joanne Carson on August 23, 1984. According to Joanne Carson, when he died at her home on August 25, his last words were, "It's me, it's Buddy," followed by, "I'm cold." Buddy was Sook's name for him.
In 1961, Capote's novelBreakfast at Tiffany's (1958), about a flamboyant New York party girl named Holly Golightly, was filmed by directorBlake Edwards and starredAudrey Hepburn in what many consider her defining role, though Capote never approved of the many changes to the story, made to appeal to mass audiences.
Capote's childhood experiences are captured in the memoirA Christmas Memory (1956), which he adapted for television and narrated. Directed byFrank Perry, it aired on December 21, 1966, onABC Stage 67, and featuredGeraldine Page in anEmmy Award-winning performance.
Capote narrated hisThe Thanksgiving Visitor (1967), a sequel toA Christmas Memory, filmed by Frank Perry inPike Road, Alabama. Geraldine Page again won an Emmy for her performance in this hour-longteleplay.
TheABC Stage 67 teleplay was later incorporated into Perry's 1969 anthology filmTrilogy (akaTruman Capote's Trilogy), which also includes adaptations of "Miriam" and "Among the Paths to Eden".
Neil Simon's murder mystery spoofMurder by Death (1976) provided Capote's main role as an actor, portraying reclusive millionaire Lionel Twain who invites the world's leading detectives together to a dinner party to have them solve a murder. The performance brought him aGolden Globe Award nomination (Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture). Early in the film, it is alleged that Twain has ten fingers but no pinkies. In truth, Capote's pinkie fingers were unusually large. In the film, Capote's character is highly critical of detective fiction from the likes ofAgatha Christie andDashiell Hammett.
Woody Allen'sAnnie Hall (1977) includes a scene in which Alvy (Allen) and Annie (Diane Keaton) are observing passersby in the park. Alvy comments, "Oh, there's the winner of the Truman Capote Look-Alike Contest". The passerby is actually Truman Capote (who appeared in the film uncredited).
Other Voices, Other Rooms (1995) stars David Speck in the lead role of Joel Sansom. Reviewing this atmosphericSouthern Gothic film inThe New York Times,Stephen Holden wrote:
One of the things the movie does best is transport you back in time and into nature. In the early scenes as Joel leaves his aunt's home to travel across the South by rickety bus and horse and carriage, you feel the strangeness, wonder and anxiety of a child abandoning everything that's familiar to go to a place so remote he has to ask directions along the way. The landscape over which he travels is so rich and fertile that you can almost smell the earth and sky. Later on, when Joel tussles with Idabel (Aubrey Dollar), a tomboyish neighbor who becomes his best friend (a character inspired by the author Harper Lee), the movie has a special force and clarity in its evocation of the physical immediacy of being a child playing outdoors.[84]
In 1995, Capote's novellaThe Grass Harp (1951), which he later turned into a 1952 play, was made into a film version with a screenplay by Stirling Silliphant and directed byCharles Matthau,Walter Matthau's son. This story is somewhat autobiographical of Capote's childhood in Alabama.[85]
The TV movieTruman Capote's A Christmas Memory (1997), withPatty Duke andPiper Laurie, was a remake of the 1966 television show, directed by Glenn Jordan.
With Love from Truman (1966), a 29-minute documentary byDavid and Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, shows aNewsweek reporter interviewing Capote at his beachfront home in Long Island. Capote talks aboutIn Cold Blood, his relationship with the murderers, and his coverage of the trial. He is also seen taking Alvin Dewey and his wife around New York City for the first time. Originally titledA Visit with Truman Capote, this film was commissioned by National Educational Television and shown on the NET network.[86]
Truman Capote: The Tiny Terror (original airdate December 17, 1997) is a documentary that aired as part of A&E'sBiography series,[87] followed by a 2005 DVD release.[88]
The Capote Tapes (2019), directed by Ebs Burnough. Using "never-before-heard" audio archives and interviews with Capote and his associates, the film centers around Capote's unfinished novel,Answered Prayers.[89]
In 1994, actor-writer Bob Kingdom created the one-man theatre pieceThe Truman Capote Talk Show, in which he played Capote looking back over his life. Originally performed at theLyric Studio Theatre, Hammersmith, London, the show has toured widely within the UK and internationally.[citation needed]
In54 (1998), with Louis Negin in the role of Capote, a reference is made to Capote just having had a face lift, and the song "Knock on Wood" is dedicated to him.[citation needed]
InCapote (2005), Capote was played byPhilip Seymour Hoffman withCatherine Keener asHarper Lee. The biographical film is the dramatic feature debut of directorBennett Miller. Spanning the years Capote spent researching and writingIn Cold Blood, the film depicts Capote's conflict between his compassion for his subjects and self-absorbed obsession with finishing the book.Capote garnered much critical acclaim when it was released (September 30, 2005, in the US and February 24, 2006, in the UK).Dan Futterman's screenplay was based on the bookCapote: A Biography by Gerald Clarke (1988).[citation needed]Capote received fiveAcademy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress. Hoffman's performance earned him many awards, including anOscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role, aBAFTA Award, aGolden Globe Award, aScreen Actors Guild Award, and anIndependent Spirit Award.
Infamous (2006), directed by Douglas McGrath and starringToby Jones as Capote andSandra Bullock asHarper Lee, is an adaptation ofGeorge Plimpton'sTruman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career (1997). On the DVD commentary track, McGrath admits to the occasional scene being compiled and drawn together by using the truth and blended with his own "imagination" of how the actual story evolved.[citation needed]
The Swans of Fifth Avenue: A Novel (2016) byMelanie Benjamin tells the story of the evolution of Capote's friendship withBabe Paley and the New York "swans", and his fallout from high society after the publication of "La Côte Basque 1965".[98][99]
House of Flowers (1954) Columbia 2320. (LP) Broadway production. Saint Subber presents Truman Capote and Harold Arlen'sHouse of Flowers, starringPearl Bailey. Directed byPeter Brook with musical numbers byHerbert Ross. Columbia 12" LP, Stereo-OS-2320. Electronically reprocessed for stereo.
Children on Their Birthdays (1955) Columbia Literary Series ML 4761 12" LP. Reading by Capote.
House of Flowers (1955) Columbia Masterworks 12508. (LP) Read by the Author.
A Christmas Memory (1959) United Artists UAL 9001. (LP) Truman Capote reading hisA Christmas Memory.
In Cold Blood (1966) RCA Victor Red Seal monophonic VDM-110. (LP) Truman Capote reads scenes fromIn Cold Blood.
The Thanksgiving Visitor (1967) United Artists UAS 6682. (LP) Truman Capote reading hisThe Thanksgiving Visitor.
Capote (2006) RCA, Film Soundtrack. Includes complete 1966 RCA recording Truman Capote reads scenes fromIn Cold Blood
In Cold Blood (2006) Random House unabridged on 12 CDs. Read byScott Brick.
Autobiographical essay, photos byDavid Attie; published in the February 1959 issue ofHoliday Magazine and later as "A House On The Heights" in 2002 (see below)
Portraits and Observations: The Essays of Truman Capote
Published by Random House
2015
The Early Stories of Truman Capote
Published by Random House; 14 previously unpublished stories, written by Capote when he was a teenager, discovered in theNew York Public Library Archives in 2013.
^The details of the emergence of this manuscript have been recounted by Capote's executor, Alan U. Schwartz, in the afterword to the novel's publication.
^Roy Newquist, Counterpoint, (Chicago, 1964), p. 79
^"Kansas Farmer Slain".The New York Times. November 16, 1959. p. 39. Archived fromthe original on February 5, 2010. RetrievedMarch 8, 2010.
^Truman Capote; Jann Wenner (1973). M. Thomas Inge (ed.).Truman Capote: Conversations. Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi (published 1987). p. 297.
^"Great Moments". San Francisco Film Festival. History.sffs.org (published May 4, 2006). 1974.Archived from the original on December 24, 2010. RetrievedMarch 8, 2010.
^abcHelliker, Kevin (February 19, 2013). "Long-Lost Files Cast Doubt onIn Cold Blood".The Wall Street Journal. In Depth (Europe ed.). pp. 14+.
^Peter Gillman; Leni Gillman (June 21, 1992)."Hoax: Secrets that Truman Capote took to the grave"(PDF).The New York Times. An investigation for theSunday Times Magazine. Archived from the original on July 15, 2011. RetrievedJanuary 17, 2011.
^Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (September 10, 1987). "Books of the Times".The New York Times.
^abSam Kashner (December 2012)."Capote's Swan Dive".Vanity Fair. pp. 200–214.Archived from the original on October 12, 2015. RetrievedOctober 11, 2015.
^"Capote Ruled Guilty of Contempt".Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Associated Press. October 20, 1970.Archived from the original on April 3, 2016. RetrievedSeptember 30, 2012.
^Solomon, Jeff (Summer 2008). "Capote and the Trillings: Homophobia and Literary Culture at Midcentury".Twentieth Century Literature.54 (2):129–165.doi:10.1215/0041462X-2008-3001.JSTOR20479846.
^Marks, Justin (February 18, 2014)."A Visit with Truman Capote".Maysles Films Inc.Archived from the original on August 22, 2015. RetrievedAugust 25, 2015.
Clarke, Gerald (1988)Capote: A Biography. Simon and Schuster. Bestselling and critically acclaimed biography. Basis for the 2005 filmCapote.
Colacello, Bob (1990).Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up. HarperCollins. Contains many anecdotes regarding Capote's association with Warhol, and an entire chapter on Capote's relationship withInterview magazine and how it led to the writing ofMusic For Chameleons.
Garson, Helen S.Truman Capote: A Study of the Short Fiction. Boston; Twayne, 1992.
Grobel, Lawrence (1985) "Conversations with Capote. NAL.
Lamparski, Richard (2006)Manhattan Diary. BearManor Media.ISBN1-59393-054-2
Lish, Gordon.Dear Mr. Capote. This first novel by Lish tells the story of a serial killer who wants Truman Capote to write his biography. In the letter the killer writes to Capote the details of his life, and reveals hismodus operandi.[citation needed]
Johnson, Thomas S., (1974) "The Horror in the Mansion: Gothic Fiction in the works of Truman Capote." Ann Arbor, Mich.: Dissertation Abstracts.
Plimpton, George (1997)Truman Capote, In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances, and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career. Published by Nan A. Talese (imprint ofDoubleday). Collection of first-hand observations about the author. Basis for the filmInfamous (2006).
Schwartz, Alan U. 2006. Afterword. In Truman Capote,Summer Crossing. Modern Library.
Walter, Eugene, as told to Katherine Clark, foreword by George Plimpton (2001)Milking the Moon: A Southerner's Story of Life on This Planet. Crown. Actor-novelist-raconteur Walter, who first met Capote when they were children, recalled several anecdotes about Capote as an adult and as a child (when he was known asBulldog Persons).
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