Sometimes people leave books in our village hall, as a way of either passing on a good read or of disposing of one they hated. Someone left behind a 1988 hardcover edition of Gerald Clarke's Capote: A Biography which I read over several months, usually at 3 am after being awakened by my cat. Clarke's biography of the 20th century American author was the basis for the 2005 film Capote starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. I do prefer, however, the 2006 film Infamous with Toby Jones as Truman. Clarke's, at any rate, is the first full biography about him that I have read, following Laurence Leamer's Capote's Women that the Hulu miniseries Feud was based upon. I had also read Roseanne Montillo's Deliberate Cruelty about how Truman Capote's ridicule in a short story contributed to the downfall and suicide of socialite Ann Woodward after she accidentally shot and killed her husband. The short story in Esquire, which was supposed to be part of his magnum opus Answered Prayers, never completed, destroyed Ann but caused Truman's fall from grace as well, as his coterie of grandes dames did not appreciate having their secrets betrayed to the world. But Truman seemed to have trouble with boundaries, perhaps as a result of the repeated emotional and physical abuse he suffered as a child.
The style and sophistication of New York City in the 1950's and early 60's, that lost world of privilege and prejudice depicted in Mad Men and in Doris Day movies, fascinates many people today. The New York odyssey of Truman Capote, the poor lad from Monroeville, Alabama, who journeyed through the labyrinth of publishing houses, theaters, penthouse apartments, art studios, grand hotels, mansions, prisons, restaurants and bars, only to end up dead from alcohol and drug abuse, is a modern morality tale of the highest order. I think Truman became famous too young before he had the chance to prove the extent of his brilliance. When still writing short stories for ladies' magazines, he was treated as a wunderkind. Soon he was hanging out with movie stars and producers. He made friends easily and had many, making more with every Long Island house party to which he was invited, as his wit made him a riveting guest. His inability to keep the confidences of his friends, as well as his tendency to embroider the facts with his novelist's imagination, lost him most of his companions, including his beautiful Babe Paley, whom he had cherished the most. But he was never the same after In Cold Blood, in which he wrote about the massacre of the Clutter farm family in Kansas, becoming obsessed with the murderers and a champion of abolishing the death penalty. Reading about the murder of Mr and Mrs Clutter and their two children would make most people pro-death penalty, but not Truman, who instead agonized over Perry's deprived childhood.
My own interest in Truman began with his friend Nelle Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird and the character of "Dill" who, based upon Truman, was Scout's best friend, even as Little Truman Persons was Nelle's best friend in Monroeville where they were neighbors. Much of what made him a great writer, his empathy and insights, he gained from living with his old cousin Sook and the other ageing eccentric aunties.Truman later claimed that he wrote To Kill a Mockingbird although his letters show that, while he may have made suggestions to Nelle, it was definitely her work. But Truman never let the truth dim the glamor of a really outrageous tale, a trait he seemed to have acquired from both of his biological parents. He definitely inherited his mother's fascination with wealth. As he saw through the golden haze of pleasure to the sordidness and suffering which even money cannot protect people from, he felt betrayed by those whom he had entertained. In some ways he was merely a curiosity, an amusing lapdog, to some of the rich ladies whom he labeled his "swans," as encapsulated by the words of Lee Radziwill, who dismissed Truman and one of his friends as "just a couple of fags." Such words from someone to whom he had been genuinely devoted added another mile of despair to the already bottomless pit of his pain.
Someone
sent me a picture of the menu from a local restaurant which has at the bottom
a small rainbow banner with the words “LGBTQ+ Welcomed” as part of “The Welcoming Project." I could not help
wondering what Truman would have made of such welcoming rainbows. No doubt he
would have found them vulgar, tasteless. For those who do not know, Truman was
an uncloseted gay man in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. I say “uncloseted” although
they did not really use those terms back then. It is just that everybody knew
about Truman’s proclivities. Was he bullied at school? Yes, but then so was his
friend Nelle. Unlike the rainbow brigade of today, Truman and his
buddies were not a left-wing political movement bent on overturning society. They
were artists, trying to create beauty, or at least to reveal truth. He moved freely in high society and in low
society. Truman did not need rainbows to make him feel
safe; he used his wit and story-telling abilities, turning his eccentricities
to a productive use, and unproductive use, too, for that matter. But my point
is that he did not live in a rainbow cocoon looking for safe restaurants in
which to sip his martinis.
But even Truman's lifestyle was ultimately self-destructive, from the boyfriends who beat him up to his inability to finish his novel or even to give a coherent reading. His personal lack of boundaries coincided with a loss of restraint by the entire society, as people's most private matters of their private lives became topics for talk show hosts. By the early 70's the sexual revolution was in full swing. Like the murdered Clutter family in Truman's In Cold Blood, Americans saw their homes invaded, not necessarily by thuggish murderers, but by the breakdown of modesty and self-control. Family life could barely survive the onslaught, as the boundaries constructed by respect and tradition were thrown to the winds. Holly Golightly came to embody the lifestyle of so many young women in whose lives there have often been many lovers
but very little true love. Truman in the end was set adrift with no home, no committed friends, only an addiction to drugs and alcohol and a deep bitterness caused by unhealed trauma. Clarke's biography is based upon personal interviews with Truman and those who knew him, revealing the greatness of the writer as well as the human weakness and woundedness which overcame him at last.
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| Babe and Bill Paley |
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on the Queen's consideration towards her when she was expecting. There is also the famous story, included in my novel 
, about how Marie-Antoinette got down on the floor to pick up the paints and brushes for Madame Vigée-Lebrun when the artist was in the family way. 
