Photo by MOSCOT (moscot.com), via Wikimedia Commons

From the moment my mother told me about the Black And White Ball when I was 12-years-old, I became fascinated by Capote, who at 5 foot, 3 inches, was dubbed “The Tiny Terror”.

I went on to read everything by and about him. I was fascinated by his distinctive high-pitched voice and odd vocal mannerisms, his crazy clothing and his fabulous stories recited with his special humor when he would appear on television talk shows. I still own everything written by Capote, plus biographies, diaries and books of letters.

Capote had a long-standing rivalry with another of my favorites, Gore Vidal. Their rivalry prompted another member of my favorite writers’ club, Tennessee Williams, to complain:

“You would think they were running neck and neck for some fabulous gold prize.”

Truman Garcia Capote (1924 -1984) was a novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and occasional actor. Many of Capote’s short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are considered literary classics, including the novella Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1958) and the true crime novel In Cold Blood (1966), which he labeled a “nonfiction novel”. At least 20 films have been produced based on Capote novels, stories, and plays.

He was born Truman Streckfus Persons in New Orleans in 1924 and he left this world in Bel Air, California, in 1984. He was only 59-years-old when he was taken by liver cancer and complications from ”multiple drug intoxication”. He died at the home of his best friend Joanne Carson, ex-wife of Johnny Carson, on whose program, The Tonight Show, Capote had been a frequent guest. After he was cremated, his ashes spent two decades in the care of Joanne Carson, a proudly strange woman. She told interviewers that Capote’s remains ”were my sanity for years”, only reluctantly placing them in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery after someone lifted them at a Halloween party where Carson said that Alan Thicke was dressed as a scarecrow and Jim Backus had come as Mr. Magoo, and Phyllis Diller was there as an albino. Then the ashes were returned a week later by someone tossing them from a passing car on to Carson’s coiled-up garden hose.

Carson left this world in spring 2015. Capote’s remains were auctioned at Julien’s Auctions in 2016. They went for $61,000 and came in an antique Japanese hand-carved wooden box, so it was totally worth the price. I am certain that they now make a smart accessory for some lucky fan.

Photograph by Roger Higgins, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I own a first edition paperback of Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1958) I love all his work, but my very favorite is probably his long short story A Christmas Memory (1956). During the holidays I always re-read it and I set a copy, as part of a Christmas tableau, on the dining table as a holiday ritual.