Too Brief a Treat

The Letters of Truman Capote

Truman Capote, Gerald Clarke

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Hardback

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English

Random House USA Inc
15 December 2004

Literary studies: general

Gerald Clarke, acclaimed biographer of Truman Capote, brings together for the first time the private letters of Truman Capote.

Truman Capote was hailed as one the most meticulous writers in American letters-a part of the Capote mystique is that his precise writing seemed to exist apart from his chaotic life. While the measure of Capote as a writer is best taken through his work, Capote the person is best understood in his personal correspondence with friends, colleagues, lovers, and rivals.

In Too Brief a Treat, the acclaimed biographer Gerald Clarke brings together for the first time the private letters of Truman Capote. Encompassing more than four decades, these letters reveal the inner life of one of the twentieth century's most intriguing personalities. As Clarke notes in his Introduction, Capote was an inveterate letter writer who both loved and craved love without inhibition. He wrote letters as he spoke- emphatically, spontaneously, and without reservation. He also wrote them at a breakneck pace, unconcerned with posterity. Thus, in this volume we have perhaps the closest thing possible to an elusive treasure- a Capote autobiography.

Through his letters to the likes of William Styron, Gloria Vanderbilt, his publishers and editors, his longtime companion and lover Jack Dunphy, and others, we see Capote in all his life's phases-the uncannily self-possessed na.f who jumped headlong into the dynamic post-World War Two New York literary scene and the more mature, established Capote of the 1950s. Then there is the Capote of the early 1960s, immersed in the research and writing of his masterpiece, In Cold Blood. Capote's correspondence with Kansas detective Alvin Dewey, and with Perry Smith, one of the killers profiled in that work, demonstrates Capote's intense devotion to his craft, while his letters to friends like Cecil Beaton show Capote giddy with his emergence as a flamboyant mass media celebrity after that book's publication. Finally, we see Capote later in his life, as things seemed to be unraveling- when he is disillusioned, isolated by his substance abuse and by personal rivalries. (Ever effusive with praise and affection, Capote could nevertheless carry a grudge like few others).

Too Brief a Treat is that uncommon book that gives us a literary titan's unvarnished thoughts. It is both Gerald Clarke's labor of love and a surpassing work of literary history.

By: Truman Capote
Edited by: Gerald Clarke
Imprint: Random House USA Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 241mm, Width: 165mm, Spine: 38mm
Weight: 831g
ISBN: 9780375501333
ISBN 10: 0375501339
Pages: 512
Publication Date: 15 December 2004
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Truman Capote was born September 30, 1924, in New Orleans. After his parents' divorce, he was sent to live with relatives in Monroeville, Alabama. It was here he would meet his lifelong friend, the author Harper Lee. Capote rose to international prominence in 1948 with the publication of his debut novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms. Among his celebrated works are Breakfast at Tiffany's, A Tree of Night, The Grass Harp, Summer Crossing, A Christmas Memory, and In Cold Blood, widely considered one of the greatest books of the twentieth century. Twice awarded the O. Henry Short Story Prize, Capote was also the recipient of a National Institute of Arts and Letters Creative Writing Award and an Edgar Award. He died August 25, 1984, shortly before his sixtieth birthday. Gerald Clarke is the author of Capote- A Biography and Get Happy- The Life of Judy Garland. He has also written for many publications, including Architectural Digest, Time, where he was a senior writer, and Esquire. A graduate of Yale, he now lives in Bridgehampton, New York.

Reviews for Too Brief a Treat: The Letters of Truman Capote

“Dead funny and crackling with gossip.” —Vanity Fair “Here we see Capote at his witchy, bitchy best, leaving us longing for more.” —The Washington Post World “Chatty, funny, affectionate and wildly interested in the big world—the bigger the better—Capote the correspondent is irresistible.” —Newsday