Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintences and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career - Softcover

Plimpton, George

 
9780385491730: Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintences and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0385491735 ISBN 13: 9780385491730
Verlag: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1998

Inhaltsangabe

He was the most social of writers, and at the height of his career, he was the very nexus of the glamorous worlds of the arts, politics and society, a position best exemplified by his still legendary Black and White Ball. Truman truly knew everyone, and now the people who knew him best tell his remarkable story to bestselling author and literary lion, George Plimpton.

Using the oral-biography style that made his Edie (edited with Jean Stein) a bestseller, George Plimpton has blended the voices of Capote's friends, lovers, and colleagues into a captivating and narrative. Here we see the entire span of Capote's life, from his Southern childhood, to his early days in New York; his first literary success with the publication of Other Voices, Other Rooms; his highly active love life; the groundbreaking excitement of In Cold Blood, the first "nonfiction novel"; his years as a jet-setter; and his final days of flagging inspiration, alcoholism, and isolation. All his famous friends and enemies are here: C.Z. Guest, Katharine Graham, Lauren Bacall, Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, John Huston, William F. Buckley, Jr., and dozens of others.

Full of wonderful stories, startlingly intimate and altogether fascinating, this is the most entertaining account of Truman Capote's life yet, as only the incomparable George Plimpton could have done it.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

George Plimpton, the originator of "participatory journalism," is the editor of The Paris Review.  His books include Paper Lion, Out of My League, The Bogey Man, Open Net, The Curious Case of Sidd Finch, and, most recently, The X Factor.  He lives in New York City.

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He was the most social of writers, and at the height of his career, he was the very nexus of the glamorous worlds of the arts, politics and society, a position best exemplified by his still legendary Black and White Ball. Truman truly knew everyone, and now the people who knew him best tell his remarkable story to bestselling author and literary lion, George Plimpton.
Using the oral-biography style that made his "Edie (edited with Jean Stein) a bestseller, George Plimpton has blended the voices of Capote's friends, lovers, and colleagues into a captivating and narrative. Here we see the entire span of Capote's life, from his Southern childhood, to his early days in New York; his first literary success with the publication of Other Voices, Other Rooms; his highly active love life; the groundbreaking excitement of In Cold Blood, the first "nonfiction novel"; his years as a jet-setter; and his final days of flagging inspiration, alcoholism, and isolation. All his famous friends and enemies are here: C.Z. Guest, Katharine Graham, Lauren Bacall, Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, John Huston, William F. Buckley, Jr., and dozens of others.
Full of wonderful stories, startlingly intimate and altogether fascinating, this is the most entertaining account of Truman Capote's life yet, as only the incomparable George Plimpton could have done it.

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1966: In Which TC Decides to Give His Black-and-White Ball JOHN KNOWLES Don't you think Truman sat there in Monroeville Alabama, when he was about ten, deeply rejected and out of it, strange little outcast, even in his own house, and said that someday he would hire the most beautiful ballroom in New York City and he would have the most elegant and famous people in the world there?• • •LEO LERMAN The ball was one of his major works. As much a major work as some of his short stories. He sat there planning it all summer long. I came back from somewhere to find him surrounded by these notebooks. I wondered what work is he writing? It turned out to be this ball. One of the things he adored saying was "Well, maybe you'll be invited and maybe you won't." He'd say things like "Well, are we going to have so-and-so?" Then he'd make little notes. He had the most marvelous time doing it. It was his reward for all those years he kept for himself. It was ostensibly for Kay Graham. It was for Truman.DOMINICK DUNNE Two years before Truman's ball, on my tenth wedding anniversary, my wife, Lenny, and I gave a black-and-white ball where the ladies were asked to dress in black and white. We had a policy that no one could bring houseguests or anything because there was just limited space. At the last minute Truman called and said, "Yes, yes, I'm coming, I'm going to be there, but I'm bringing three guests." Well, we didn't have the nerve to say to him, "Well, you can't bring them." They turned out to be Alvin Dewey, the FBI agent, his wife, and a third person involved in the In Cold Blood case. It was a very glamorous affair, filled with film stars. These people from that little town in Kansas were absolutely awed by it. I mean David Niven, Gina Lollobrigida, Natalie Wood, Loretta Young, Jennifer Jones, I mean it went on and on. That was 1964, the days when Hollywood was still the kind of Hollywood that we fantasize about. We had our house totally cleared of furniture and off the library in the back there was this tent so huge that friends who had been coming to our house for years were disoriented, they didn't know where they were. We had two bands. It was very beautiful, an extravagant waste of money. I mean, later in life I went broke, and that was a perfect example of why. Truman loved it. I have these incredible photographs of him dancing with Tuesday Weld, talking to Jennifer Jones. He was one of the last ones to leave. Then two years later he gave his great ball, the black-and-white ball, did the same thing, but he didn't invite us!GEORGE PLIMPTON Truman must have kept at his guest list all that summer, pruning, adding, mostly pruning, I suspect. I remember summer day at the Bennett Cerfs' in Mount Kisco--the estate called the Columns because the money to build it had come the proceeds Bennett got for his syndicated columns-- "Tradewinds," "Cerfboard" among them. It was a hot day and I remember the luncheon guests gathered around the swimming pool that afternoon--Frank Sinatra, Mia, his young wife then, and Truman of course. Mia in a black bathing suit, as I remember, was lying on her back in the sun by the edge of the pool--just enchanting, and not really part of the conversation or anything, when suddenly a butterfly landed on the exposed part of her breast, above the line of the bathing suit. It was one of the large swallowtail variety, the kind that fans its wings absolutely straight up and holds them there motionless, a sail for an instant, and then fans them again. Absolutely beautiful, of course, obviously because it had picked Mia to land on, faunlike, childlike, and we all stared spellbound. Then Truman broke it, quite abruptly. "What about the Goetzes?" he called out quite loudly, or some such name. "Should I invite them, or consign them..."• • •R. COURI HAY (publicist) Truman always claimed he invited 500 of his friends and made 15,000 enemies.• • •BOB COLACELLO (writer) Truman did invite Andy Warhol to the black-and-white ball, but he couldn't bring anyone, which for Andy in the sixties was a major agony.• • •PETER MATTHIESSEN (writer) Truman was kind of upset when I told him my book was going well and I didn't want to break off to go to the black-and-white party. I explained that I would only get drunk and lose the drift of things for two or three days, but he was utterly unmollified. He was even more annoyed when Bill Styron stayed home, too, for the same reason. Bill had rung up to ask if I was going to Truman's party, and when I said, "No," he said, "Great! I'm not going, either!" As it turned out, we missed something wonderful, and Bill uphraids me every few years--"You talked us out of the best party in history!" Next time I saw Truman, he was still a little sulky. When I asked if I was forgiven, he burst out, "Cecil Beaton came all the way from London for my party, and you wouldn't even come in from Sagaponack!" • • •MARIA THERESA CAEN (literary agent) I flew from San Francisco to New York, carrying my mask. Literally everyone, porters at the airport, cabdrivers, strangers, it seemed like all of New York knew about the party. I couldn't put my mask in my bag, it would have been all squashed and ruined. It was on a stick, covered in cellophane, and everyone knew I was going to Truman's ball. They'd say, "Oh! You're going to Truman's party!" Not to "Capote's party" but to "Truman's party." It was so intimate. For a while it looked like I was going to Truman's ball with a bath towel and the mask because airline lost my bag with my dress. It finally arrived at the hotel hours before the ball. In the meantime, Geraldine Stutz sent over something I could wear from Bendel's in case my dress didn't arrive There was great excitement in the hotel. The maids would come running in and say, "Oh, your dress is here, your dress is here!"HERB CAEN It was the talk of New York. The elevator operators, the cab drivers, the doormen, as soon as they saw you with a mask or headdress, they said, "Going to Truman's ball, huh?" New York had that funny small-town feel to it; they were all excited that you were going to the ball. That part was fun. It was like the Super Bowl. There was such a buildup that by the time the game was played, it didn't amount to much.• • •November 28,1966: In Which the Band Strikes UpPIEDY LUMET We gave one of the dinners before the ball. We had the writers. Norman Mailer sat next to me; he said, "You ought to be an elevator operator. You just go up and down." I don't even want to think about what he meant by that.NORMAN MAILER I met Pat Lawford at dinner before the ball. Piedy Lumet gave the dinner. Lawford and I were seated next to each other. We got along like a house afire because we did nothing but insult each other all night. It was wonderful. She said, "I don't know why I'm sitting next to you. I've heard you're awful." Or some extraordinary thing. I said, "Well, that just shows how dumb the people are that you know." We've gotten along ever since.• • •JOHN KNOWLES I thought the masked ball was a hoot. I felt as if we were in Versailles in 1788. People were applauding us in the street as we walked in. We had our masks on. I thought next year it'll be the tumbrels taking us out to Herald Square, but at the moment we were the last of the aristocrats. I remember arriving at the side entrance of the Plaza. There was a solid phalanx of news media. I forget exactly what group I was with but no stars were with us. We arrived and the klieg lights went on because we were masked. They turned on the lights and looked at us. Nobody. The lights went...

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Verlag
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Erscheinungsdatum
1998
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0385491735
ISBN 13 
9780385491730
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
544
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
preigu
mail@preigu.de

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