This is the fifteenth in a series
highlighting the best gay and lesbian authors from the 20th century
(with a few before and after that period) who have recorded in fiction,
and nonfiction, the history of gay people telling what life is, and was,
during an important time of history

As
Capote aged  his drinking and drug problems increased and he became the
clown in the high society he worked so hard to be a part of but, even
more sadly, the fact that he was an excellent writer was lost as he made
more and more foolish public appearances. Having just written "In Cold
Blood" would have kept his name in the literary circles but his last
book, which he didn't finish, was a gossip tale betraying his friends,
and they, in turn, turned on him and, consequently, burnished his
reputation.

Truman Capote (pronounced /ˈtruːmən kəˈpoʊti/; September
30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American author, many of whose short
stories, novels, plays and nonfiction are
recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958) and
In Cold Blood (1965), which he
labeled a "nonfiction novel." At least 20 films and television dramas have been
produced from Capote novels, stories and screenplays.
Capote rose above a childhood troubled by divorce, a long absence from his
mother and multiple migrations. He discovered his calling by the age of eleven,
and for the rest of his childhood he honed his writing ability. Capote began his
professional career writing short stories. The critical success of one story,
"Miriam"
(1945), attracted the attention of Random House publisher Bennett Cerf, resulting in a contract to write
Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948). Capote earned the most fame with In Cold Blood (1965), a journalistic work
about the murder of a Kansas farm family in their home, a book Capote spent four
years writing. A milestone in
popular culture, it was the peak of his career, although it was not his final
book. In the 1970s, he maintained his celebrity status by appearing on
television talk shows.

Celebrity

Capote was 5 feet 3 inches (160 cm) tall^[20] and openly homosexual. One
of his first serious lovers was Smith College literature professor Newton Arvin, who won the National Book
Award for his Herman
MelvilleOther
Voices, Other Rooms.^[21][22] biography in 1951. It was to Arvin that Capote dedicated
Capote was well known for his distinctive, high-pitched voice and odd vocal
mannerisms, his offbeat manner of dress and his fabrications. He often claimed
to know intimately people he had in fact never met, such as Greta Garbo. He professed to
have had numerous liaisons with men thought to be heterosexual, including, he claimed, Errol Flynn. He traveled in an
eclectic array of social circles, hobnobbing with authors, critics, business
tycoons, philanthropists,
Hollywood and theatrical celebrities, royalty, and members of high society, both in the U.S.
and abroad. Part of his public persona was a longstanding rivalry with writer Gore Vidal. Their rivalry
prompted Tennessee
Williams to complain: "You would think they were running neck-and-neck for
some fabulous gold prize." Apart from his favorite authors (Willa Cather, Isak Dinesen, Marcel Proust), Capote had
faint praise for other writers. However, one who did get his favorable
endorsement was journalist Lacey Fosburgh, author of Closing Time:
The True Story of the Goodbar Murder (1977). He also claimed an
admiration for Andy Warhol's
The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A
to B & Back Again.

     

The years following
In Cold Blood

Now more sought after than ever, Capote wrote occasional brief articles for
magazines, and also entrenched himself more deeply in the world of the jet set. Gore Vidal once observed, "Truman Capote has tried,
with some success, to get into a world that I have tried, with some success, to
get out of.".^[23]
In the late 1960s, he became friendly with Lee Radziwill, the sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
Radziwill was an aspiring actress and had been panned for her performance in a
production of The Philadelphia StoryOtto Preminger film Laura. The
adaptation, and Radziwill's performance in particular, received indifferent
reviews and poor ratings; arguably, it was Capote's first major professional
setback. Radziwill supplanted the older Babe Paley as his primary female
companion in public throughout the better part of the 1970s. in
Chicago. Capote was commissioned to write the teleplay for a 1967 television
production starring Radziwill: an adaptation of the classic
On November 28, 1966, in honor of The Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham,
Capote hosted a now legendary masked ball, called the Black and White Ball, in
the Grand Ballroom of New York City's Plaza Hotel. It was considered the social event of
not only that season but of many to follow. The New York Times and other
publications gave it considerable coverage, and Deborah Davis wrote an entire
book about the event, Party of the Century (2006), excerpted by The
Independent.^[24]George Plimpton in his book Truman
Capote.^[25] Different accounts
of the evening were collected by
Capote dangled the prized invitations for months, snubbing early supporters
like fellow Southern writer Carson McCullers as he determined who was "in"
and who was "out." ^[26]
Despite the assertion earlier in life that one "lost an IQ point for every
year spent on the West Coast," he purchased a home in Palm
SpringsJack Dunphy, with whom he had shared a nonexclusive
relationship since the 1950s. Their partnership changed form and continued
as a nonsexual one, and they were separated during much of the 1970s. Dunphy was
irritated by the unwavering substance abuse and even went so far as to allege
that Capote had slept with Radziwill. However, others have alleged that Dunphy,
a writer and playwright of far less renown, was unappreciative of money and
gifts bestowed on him by Capote (including a Swiss condominium that Capote had
little use for). and began to indulge in a more aimless lifestyle and heavy drinking.
This resulted in bitter quarreling with his life partner,
The dearth of new writing and other failures, including a rejected screenplay
for Paramount's 1974 adaptation of The Great Gatsby, was counteracted by
Capote's frequenting of the talk show circuit. There, his candid—and sometimes
inebriated—appearances became the stuff of cliché. In 1972, with Lee Radziwill
in tow, Capote accompanied the Rolling Stones on their 1972 American Tour as a
correspondent for Rolling
StoneIn Cold Blood days in Kansas
City, he feuded with Mick
Jagger and ultimately refused to write the article. The magazine eventually
recouped its interests by publishing, in April 1973, an interview of the author
conducted by Andy Warhol. A
collection of previously published essays and reportage, The Dogs Bark:
Public People and Private Places, appeared later that year. magazine. While managing to take extensive notes for the project
and visit old friends from the
In July 1973 Capote met John O'Shea, the middle-aged vice president of Marine
Midland Bank on Long Island, while visiting a bathhouse. The married father of
three did not identify as homosexual or bisexual, perceiving his visits as being
a "kind of masturbation." However, O'Shea found Capote's fortune alluring and
harbored aspirations to become a professional writer. After consummating their
relationship in Palm Springs, the two engaged in an ongoing war of jealousy and
manipulation for the remainder of the decade. Longtime friends were appalled
when O'Shea, who was officially employed as Capote's manager, attempted to take
total control of the author's literary and business interests.
After the revocation of his driver's license (the result of speeding near his
Long Island residence) and a
hallucinatory seizure in 1980 that required hospitalization, Capote became
fairly reclusive. These hallucinations continued unabated and scans revealed
that his brain mass had perceptibly shrunk. On the rare occasions when he was
lucid, he continued to hype Answered Prayers as being nearly complete and
was reportedly planning a reprise of the Black and White Ball to be held either
in Los Angeles or a more exotic locale in South America. On a few occasions, he
was still able to write. In 1982, a new short story, "One Christmas", appeared
in the December issue of Ladies' Home Journal and the
following year it became, like its predecessors "A Christmas Memory" and "The
Thanksgiving Visitor", a holiday gift book. In 1983, "Remembering Tennessee", an
essay in tribute to Tennessee Williams, who had died in February
of that year, appeared in Playboy magazine.
Capote died in Los Angeles on August 25, 1984, aged 59.^[27] According to the coroner's report the cause of death was "liver disease
complicated by phlebitis and
multiple drug intoxication".^[28] He died at the
home of his old friend Joanne Carson, ex-wife of late-night TV host Johnny Carson, on whose
program Capote had been a frequent guest. He was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial
Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, leaving behind his longtime companion, author
Jack Dunphy. Dunphy died in
1992, and in 1994 both his and Capote's ashes were scattered at Crooked Pond,
between Bridgehampton, New York and Sag Harbor, New
York on Long Island,
close to where the two had maintained a property with individual houses for many
years. Capote also maintained the property in Palm
Springs, a condominium in Switzerland that was mostly occupied by Dunphy
seasonally, and a primary residence at the United Nations Plaza in New York City. Capote's
will provided that after Dunphy's death a literary trust would be established,
sustained by revenues from Capote's works, to fund various literary prizes and
grants including the Truman
Capote Award for Literary Criticism in Memory of Newton Arvin, commemorating
not only Capote but also his friend Newton Arvin, the Smith College professor and critic, who lost his
job after his homosexuality was exposed.^[29]
After his death, fellow writer Gore Vidal described Capote's demise as "a good
career move"
FOR A LOT MORE ABOUT CAPOTES, HIS LIFE AND HIS WRITINGS GO TO:       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truman_Capote