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Truman Capote had foresight. He knew that Answered Prayers, his high-society tell-all, would cause a public relations tizzy; he promoted it in interviews and late-night talk shows like Dick Cavett’s for years before it was even partially released. He also knew the book would have an impact. Capote likened it to Proust’s Swann’s Way and referred to it as his magnum opus—this, from the man who had practically invented the non-fiction novel with 1965’s In Cold Blood.
To write Answered Prayers, Capote played the long game, infiltrating the monied and stylish lives of those who ruled the world he wanted to immortalize—Barbara “Babe” Paley, Gloria Guinness, Marella Agnelli, Slim Keith, Pamela Churchill, C. Z. Guest, Ann Woodward, Lee Radziwill—and climbing to the top of society’s Mount Everest before he all but flung himself off it. In November 1975, Capote published a chapter from Answered Prayers in Esquire titled “La Côte Basque, 1965.” After that, few of his “swans”—whose identities might as well have been veiled in organza—spoke to him again.
Nearly 60 years later, it’s impossible to say if Capote could have anticipated the world’s lasting fascination with Answered Prayers, from which only four chapters were ever released. (“Mojave,” “Unspoiled Monsters,” and “Kate McCloud” all ran in other issues of Esquire.) There have been several attempts to locate the completed manuscript, and a dozen theories about which chapters were and weren’t ultimately written. His friend Joanne Carson and the writer Dotson Rader both claim to have seen the full thing, while the reactions of those featured have been the subjects of books of their own.
The most noteworthy chronicling of this scandal can be found in Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era by Laurence Leamer, which went on to inspire the forthcoming Ryan Murphy show Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, directed by Gus Van Sant, out on January 31. Before Leamer digs into the Answered Prayers fallout, he looks a bit further back, detailing each cygnet’s rise to swandom. Corralling all the debutante balls, starter marriages, and hush-hush dalliances of Capote’s inner circle demanded significant research—the bibliography of Capote’s Women is extensive—but the context only made Capote’s deception juicier.
Here, find Leamer’s annotated list of things to read (and watch!) ahead of Feud: Capote vs. The Swans’s first episode next week.
Gerald Clarke’s Capote: A Biography
Gerald Clarke’s Capote: A Biography is so good that since its 1988 publication, nobody has attempted another biography. Although Clarke’s closeness to the famous author brought him unique details, he never lost his sense of objectivity.
Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Holly Golightly, the heroine of Capote’s novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s, is in some senses Truman’s first swan: a beautiful woman who seeks out rich men. Hollywood turned the whole business into a romantic fantasy with a happy ending starring Audrey Hepburn. In Capote’s work, however, Holly gets involved with a corrupt businessman and, in the end, flees the United States, hoping to meet a rich man in Rio. Best to read the book and forget the movie.
Capote (2005), dir. Bennett Miller
Philip Seymour Hoffman didn’t look anything like Truman, but in the 2005 film Capote he brilliantly captured the author. Hoffman’s portrayal does not merely recreate Truman, but is a stunning entrée into his soul.
Deborah Davis’s Party of the Century
Deborah Davis’s Party of the Century: The Fabulous Story of Truman Capote and His Black and White Ball is a fascinating account of the legendary 1966 party at the Plaza Hotel. If you weren’t invited, you stayed home in bed with a pillow over your head, bemoaning your terrible fate. Here, you can read about those who were there.
Susan Braudy’s This Crazy Thing Called Love
One of the noblest reasons to write a book is to right the wrong and tell the story as it truly was. Susan Braudy did just that in This Crazy Thing Called Love: The Golden World and Fatal Marriage of Ann and Billy Woodward. Ann Woodward killed her husband, Billy, with a shotgun blast in their Long Island house. In Truman’s “La Côte Basque” in Esquire, he wrote that Ann murdered Billy. Shortly after reading that, she killed herself. All the evidence showed her husband’s death was an accident. Braudy proves that definitively in her memorable book.
Laurence Leamer’s Capote’s Women
Lastly, and somewhat shamefully, I am going to list my own book, Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era. The book got some of the best reviews of my career and is the basis for the Ryan Murphy eight-part series Capote vs. The Swans.
