Tea at Trianon: Truman Capote - A Life Filled With an Acclaimed Career and Scandals

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Truman Capote - A Life Filled With an Acclaimed Career and Scandals

[Warning: bad language.] From Fansided:

Truman Capote was a novelist, playwright, and screenwriter whose oeuvre has inspired dozens of films, like Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood. Known for his diminutive 5’2” frame, high-pitched voice, and eccentric mannerisms, he was openly gay decades before society was ready. His writing chops and notoriety helped him to climb the New York social ladder and made friends with female, wealthy, fashionable friends. That was until he exposed many of their shameful secrets and crimes in a novel, sending him down a path of self-destruction. Let's dive into Truman Capote’s acclaimed career and the scandals that ended his career…and his life.

Truman Garcia Capote was born Truman Streckfus Persons on September 30th, 1924, in New Orleans, Louisiana. His mother was 17-year-old Lillie Mae Faulk. She and Truman’s salesman father, Archulus Persons, divorced when he was a toddler, so he was packed off to be raised by relatives in Monroeville, Alabama. There, he quickly bonded with his mother's distant relative, Nanny Rumbley Faulk, whom he called "Sook". She made him a security blanket which––like Linus from Charlie Brown––he kept with him throughout his life. Truman even allegedly had the blanket on him when he died! (Read more.)