Truman Capote : in which various friends, enemies, acquaintances, and detractors recall his turbulent career
Summary
Katherine Graham, Lauren Bacall, Gore Vidal, John Huston, and many other familiars of the writer follow his life and career, from his Southern childhood to his precipitate decline. Full description
- In which the reader is introduced to Monroeville (pop. 1,800), Harper Lee, and goes to TC's first big party
- In which TC arrives in New York, goes to a succession of schools, fails math, and meets some new friends
- In which TC joins The New Yorker, upsets Robert Frost, writes his first stories, and joins the New York artistic world
- In which TC is accepted into a writers' colony in upstate New York and into a new circle of friends and meets Newton Arvin
- In which TC takes a train ride, meets the Trillings, and alarms the Island of Nantucket
- In which TC's Other Voices, Other Rooms is published and given the critical once-over
- In which TC embarks on the grand tour and visits the salons of Paris
- In which TC moves out of his mother's apartment and meets his lifelong friend, Jack Dunphy
- In which TC and Jack Dunphy leave for the expatriate life of Europe
- In which TC receives sad news
- In which TC tries his hand at the theater
- In which TC returns to Europe, teaches a large bird epithets, writes Beat the Devil amid bedlam, and arm-wrestles Humphrey Bogart
- In which TC settles across the river
- In which TC speaks about his working habits, his mentors, and his aversion to nuns traveling on the same plane
- In which TC alarms the town of Stonington, Connecticut
- In which the reader is introduced to the swans and TC is seen as counselor and confidant
- In which TC's Breakfast at Tiffany's upsets Mr. Deems
- In which TC decides to go to Kansas
- In which TC is a witness to the doings in the penitentiary warehouse
- In which Chaplain Post describes a portrait in his living room
- In which TC discusses, in a New York Times interview, In Cold Blood and the form he claims to have invented
- the nonfiction novel
- In which In Cold Blood stirs up comment
- In which folks from Kansas come to New York and are treated by TC to the lights of Broadway
- In which TC settles in Sagaponack in the Hamptons
- In which TC and his contemporaries have a word to say about each other
- In which TC decides to give his black-and-white ball
- In which the band strikes up
- In which the dancers reminisce
- In which TC steps into bullrings and onto yachts
- In which TC is observed as jester, as little brother to the rich, and as celebrity
- In which the reader is treated to a brief disquisition on fibbing
- In which TC buys a home in Palm Springs and meets an air-conditioning repairman
- In which a banker comes to call on TC at the UN Plaza
- In which Kate Harrington, John O'Shea's daughter, tells her story
- In which society recoils from TC's bombshell
- In which the reader meets two of TC's kindred spirits
- In which TC drifts in and out of the movie business
- In which TC meets an idol
- In which the reader learns of TC's entanglement with Gore
- In which TC takes up the nightlife
- In which TC begins to work for a longtime admirer
- In which TC falls on bad times
- In which TC buys a one-way ticket to LA
- In which mourners, some of dubious note, attend services for TC at the Westwood Mortuary
- In which the mystery of Answered Prayers is examined
- in which the reader is let in on TC's secret
- In which TC and Jack Dunphy are reunited in Crooked Pond
- Coda.