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| Mark Basile & Katie Sparer as Truman Capote |
It's hard to imagine that a memoir as sweet as Truman Capote's "Holiday Memories" dripped from the same pen as "In Cold Blood" or even the classic "Breakfast At Tiffany's". Looking back at his childhood in the 1930s, "The Thanksgiving Visitor" and "A Christmas Memory" describe a period in the lives of the seven-year-old narrator and an elderly woman, Aunt Sook, who is his distant cousin and best friend. The evocative narrative focuses on country life, friendship, and the joy of giving during the holiday season. It also gently yet poignantly touches on loneliness and loss.
Born Truman Streckfus Persons on September 30, 1924 in New Orleans to Lillie Mae Faulk and Arch Persons, Capote was abandoned to aunts and distant cousins in Alabama where he spent most of his childhood unwanted by his social-climbing mother. Lillie Mae's early rejection continued after she divorced Arch, married Joseph Capote and moved to New York City to begin a new life.
In 1933, Truman's dream to join his mother in New York finally came true when she won sole custody of him in court. Joe would soon adopt Truman and in 1935 he became Truman Garcia Capote. Truman's dream of a fabulous life in New York was quickly shattered as his mother continued to push her son away and continually berate him about his increasingly noticeable lack of masculinity.
As smart and as sharp as Truman was, he was not very interested in school. He was consumed with writing. Truman didn't so much dream about being a writer; he already considered himself one. He is reported to have refused to take math because he "wouldn't need it".
In 1941, while repeating his senior year of high school, Truman got a job as a copy boy for The New Yorker in hopes that they would eventually hire him as a writer. In 1944 he either resigned or was fired for offending Robert Frost when, sick with a cold, he left in the middle of Frost's reading. Outraged, Frost immediately took the matter up with the magazine.
Leaving the New Yorker was one of the best things to happen to Capote. He began submitting his stories to more suitable magazines including Mademoiselle and Harper's Bizarre. The immediate acceptance of his work and fame that followed launched Truman into the social and literary world he had been seeking.
Truman's ability to cut to the truth in his writings would eventually turn his society friends against him. After In Cold Blood, Truman began work on a collection of stories that would become Answered Prayers. In these stories, Truman characterized his friends with biting descriptions and largely factual accounts of the glittering world in which he moved. His friends easily saw through the thinly veiled characters and soon alienated him.
Truman took the fall from society's grace rather hard and soon acquired his mother's disease, alcoholism. His heavy drinking and drug use turned the genius into a moody recluse. His eccentric behavior increased and he would often come out of hiding for an interview or appearance, only to disappear again.
Answered Prayers was published after his death. Truman Capote died on August 25, 1984, but his presence remains alive in the 21st century.
"HOLIDAY MEMORIES"- NOVEMBER 19TH at 7:30 p.m.
