{"product_id":"too-brief-a-treat-isbn-9780375702419","title":"Too Brief a Treat","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe private letters of Truman Capote, lovingly assembled here for the first time by acclaimed Capote biographer Gerald Clarke, provide an intimate, unvarnished portrait of one of the twentieth century’s most colorful and fascinating literary figures.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCapote was an inveterate letter writer. He wrote letters as he spoke: emphatically, spontaneously, and passionately. Spanning more than four decades, his letters are the closest thing we have to a Capote autobiography, showing us the uncannily self-possessed naïf who jumped headlong into the post–World War II New York literary scene; the more mature Capote of the 1950s; the Capote of the early 1960s, immersed in the research and writing of \u003ci\u003eIn Cold Blood\u003c\/i\u003e; and Capote later in life, as things seem to be unraveling. With cameos by a veritable who’s who of twentieth-century glitterati, \u003ci\u003eToo Brief a Treat\u003c\/i\u003e shines a spotlight on the life and times of an incomparable American writer.\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e“Dead funny and crackling with gossip.”\u003ci\u003e —Vanity Fair\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“Here we see Capote at his witchy, bitchy best, leaving us longing for more.” \u003ci\u003e—The Washington Post World\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“Chatty, funny, affectionate and wildly interested in the big world—the bigger the better—Capote the correspondent is irresistible.” —\u003ci\u003eNewsday\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eTruman Capote \u003c\/b\u003ewas 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, \u003ci\u003eOther Voices, Other Rooms.\u003c\/i\u003e Among his celebrated works are \u003ci\u003eBreakfast at Tiffany’s, A Tree of Night, The Grass Harp, Summer Crossing, A Christmas Memory,\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eIn Cold Blood,\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eGerald Clarke\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of \u003ci\u003eCapote: A Biography\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eGet Happy: The Life of Judy  Garland\u003c\/i\u003e. He has also written for many publications, including \u003ci\u003eArchitectural Digest,  Time,\u003c\/i\u003e where he was a senior writer, and \u003ci\u003eEsquire\u003c\/i\u003e. A graduate of Yale, he now lives  in Bridgehampton, New York.Chapter 1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTruman Capote began life under a cloud. By the time he was born, in  New Orleans on September 30, 1924, his parents' marriage was over in  all but name. His mother, Lillie Mae, a small-town beauty, went her  way, and his father, Arch Persons, a charming but irresponsible  schemer, went his. For much of his childhood, Truman was thus raised  by the same middle-aged cousins who had raised his orphaned mother:  three old maid cousins and their bachelor brother in the little town  of Monroeville, Alabama. Though he never lacked for care, that early  abandonment by his parents left an emotional wound that remained open  until the day he died.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSmall-\"I'm about as tall as a shotgun, and just as noisy,\" was how he  later described himself-Truman was spirited and inventive enough to  make himself the center of any gathering. \"A pocket Merlin\" was how  Harper Lee, his best friend during those early years, later described  him in her semiautobiographical novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. In 1932  his mother, who had dropped her back-country name, Lillie Mae, in  favor of the more sophisticated Nina, brought him north to live with  her and her new husband, a Cuban named Joe Capote, in New York. An  indulgent stepfather with a good job on Wall Street, Joe Capote  legally adopted him in 1935, and Truman Persons became Truman Capote.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1939 the Capotes left Manhattan for the upscale bedroom community  of Greenwich, Connecticut. There they settled into a handsome enclave  of Tudor houses and tree-shaded streets. When he was still in  Alabama, Capote had announced his ambition to become a writer, and at  Greenwich High School, he found what every aspiring writer needs, a  sympathetic and encouraging teacher-Catherine Wood was her name. In  Greenwich, Truman also found a soul mate in Phoebe Pierce, a pretty,  sophisticated girl whose own ambition was to be a poet. Although  there is only one letter to her-\"Phoebe devil\" was how he  affectionately addressed her-her name often comes up in his  correspondence with others.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThree years after leaving, the Capotes returned to New York, to an  apartment at 1060 Park Avenue. After belatedly graduating from high  school, a private school on Manhattan's West Side, Capote landed a  job at The New Yorker [magazine]-but only as a copyboy. That magazine  thought his stories too unconventional for its staid, Scarsdale  tastes. In those days the women's fashion magazines published the  most innovative fiction in America, and the talent The New Yorker  sneered at was quickly embraced by two remarkable fiction editors,  Mary Louise Aswell at Harper's Bazaar and George Davis at  Mademoiselle. They vied for his stories, and in the months after  World War II, Capote, still in his early twenties, became a hot  commodity in the literary marketplace.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll was not going well at home, however. Nina Capote had become an  alcoholic, and when she was not raging at Joe for his infidelities,  she was attacking Truman for his homosexuality. Finding it harder and  harder to work on Park Avenue, in 1946 Truman sought temporary refuge  at Yaddo, a writers' and artists' colony on a bucolic estate in  upstate New York. One writer who was there that summer compared him  to Shakespeare's Ariel; but he was also Puck, the one who set the  agenda for fun and adventure. Yaddo was famous for its romances, and  Capote engaged in two, the first with Howard Doughty, a handsome  married historian, the second with Newton Arvin, one of Doughty's  best friends and sometime lover. For Truman, Doughty, who remained a  friend, was just a fling. But Arvin, a professor of literature at  Smith, a women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, was real love.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey were an unlikely couple. At twenty-two, Capote looked several  years younger; at forty-six, Arvin looked several years older, in  appearance a mousy man, bald and bespectacled. In temperament they  were also opposites. Capote could scarcely restrain his high spirits;  shy and reserved, Arvin felt uncomfortable whenever he left his  Northampton sanctuary. Arvin was brave in his writing, however, and  unlike many professors of literature, he was an excellent writer  himself, a critic of unassailable judgment and a tower of erudition.  In the two years they were a pair-Capote traveled to Northampton on  weekends-Arvin provided his young partner with the college education  he had never had. Arvin, Capote liked to say, was his Harvard.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDuring the week Capote enjoyed New York, where the circles of his  friends widened with every month. One set centered on Leo Lerman, a  good-natured literary gadfly whose Sunday-night parties were a  Manhattan institution, attracting just about everybody of  note-writers and editors, movie stars and playwrights. Other sets  revolved around his magazine editors, Harper's Bazaar's much-loved  Mary Louise Aswell and Mademoiselle's slightly sinister George Davis,  whose epigrams rivaled Oscar Wilde's. After publication of his first  novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, Capote asked Davis his opinion.  \"Well,\" said Davis, \"I suppose someone had to write the fairy  Huckleberry Finn.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCapote discovered the world of a more established society when he  walked into the East Side town house of Bennett Cerf, his new  publisher at Random House, and Cerf's wife, Phyllis. There, too, he  became the center of the room, telling tales and retailing gossip.  Others among the dramatis personae of those postwar years-and  Capote's frequent correspondents-were Donald Windham and Andrew  Lyndon, two aspiring writers from Georgia, and John Malcolm Brinnin,  a poet, college teacher, and, later, the head of the Poetry Center at  the 92nd Street YMHA in Manhattan.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe publication of Other Voices, Other Rooms in the winter of 1948  brought Capote national fame-Americans of that day took literature  more seriously than they do now-and a few months later he traveled to  Europe, where, to no one's surprise, he met some of the leading  English and French writers. When he returned, he realized that he had  outgrown Arvin and his almost hermit-like isolation. For his part,  Arvin, who had engaged in a clandestine romance with Andrew Lyndon  while Capote was away, was only too willing to release his  rambunctious and often tiring lover. Though they remained devoted  friends until Arvin's death in 1963, Capote began looking around for  a new companion.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn October 1948, he found him. Ten years Capote's senior, Jack Dunphy  was athletic-he had been a dancer in the original production of  Oklahoma!-and good-looking, in a surly kind of way. He said what he  thought, to Capote and everybody else. Dunphy, too, was a writer-and  a good one-with one novel to his credit, another on the way, and  several plays in his future. This time love lasted, and Dunphy  remained Capote's constant star for the rest of his life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTO ARCH PERSONS [St. John's Military Academy] [Ossining, N.Y.] [Probably Autumn 1936]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs you know my name was changed from Person's [sic] to Capote, and I  would appreciate it if in the future you would address me as Truman  Capote, as everyone knows me by that name.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[Collection Gerald Clarke]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTO THOMAS FLANAGAN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[Greenwich, Connecticut] [1939-41]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI do hereby solemnly affirm that any statements I may have made about  Thomas Flanagan, or said that he had made, were calumnies and lies on  my part.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTruman Capote\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[Collection Edmond Miller]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTO CATHERINE WOOD [Monroeville, Ala.] [26 July 1941]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDear Miss Wood, I have been in New Orleans three weeks and I just got back to  Monroeville last night. I was very pleasantly surprised to find your  sweet note. I was so sorry to hear about your father and I do hope he  is improving.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI have been gathering material here and there and some of it is  rather good, I have written little but I have taken many notes and  tried to give accurate accounts of things that will later stand me in  good stead, (that was meant to be a period, but my typewriter  slipped.)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAre you going up to visit Miss Pierce, I hope you do because her  place in Maine sounded so quiet and restful-charmingly woodsy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI have been traveling all over the south since I came. I went to  Natchez, Miss. last week and I went on a picnic at a very scenic spot  over looking [sic] the Mississippi River.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTeddy's mother wrote me a long letter telling me all about his  doings, you know Teddy-he would'nt [sic] write anyone if his very  life depended upon it. She told me that you had written him and asked  me to tell you all the news about the dear raven haired child.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1.He has a job with the Greenich [sic] Cab company and  he makes fifteen dollars week.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2.He won $130.00 dollars [sic] at the Maidstone club  dinner dance. He is taking flying lessons with it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e3.His mother is desperate!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e4.They have moved into their new house-the address is  179 Park Ave. Greenwich.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e5.They are pleased and delighted with Teddy and he  seems to be improving. BUNK!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eP.S. He was 17 last Sat.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI have gone Russian with a vengeance! I finally finished WAR and  Peace. Also I have read Huxley's \"Point Counter Point.\" It is very  badly written, not so badly written as confusing. But it is educating  as to the point of ultra-modern sophistication.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI went all the way through the heart of Pearl River swamp in La. It  took three days and it was like being in a jungle only more  dangerous. These swamps are inhabited by Cajons (I believe that I  spelled that correctly) and it is so wild in there that some of the  younger children have never seen white people! It was really quite an  experience and I collected all kinds of material and wild  flowers-also a baby alligator which I will ship to you C.O.D any time  that you will have him. He's a regular little monster.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI am so sorry for my procrastination in answering your letter but it  was truly unavoidable. Please write me and tell me all the news as I  am at present sorta this side of civilization, where the people think  if you don't say \"ain't\" you just ain't right in the head and the  double negative is accepted grammar.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWrite me, all my very best Love, Truman\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[Collection New York Public Library]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTO CATHERINE WOOD1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHotel Frances Monroe, La. [August 1942]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOuichita-Pronounced Wa-che-Ta\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI hope all this isn't too much for your + Miss Pierce's stomach.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey have the most wonderful river life here (Ouichita river, it  flows into the Miss.). It is the most beautiful river! I went down it  on a house boat for 157 miles + back, it took a week and a half. I am  going to write a story about the people that live (I mean really  live) on houseboats along the banks + eat what they get from the  water!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI suppose you know that I will not be at G.H.S. [Greenwich High  School] this fall as we have taken an apartment in the city. But of  course I will be in Greenwich often to see you. Phoebe [Pierce] will  be in the city this winter also. If you have a guest room in your new  house you can invite me out for a weekend, (forward, aren't I?)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI do hope you can read my handwriting, because I cannot.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[Collection Unknown]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTO ARCH PERSONS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[Monroeville, Alabama] Dec 2, '43\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDear Daddy Nid,1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePlease excuse pad \u0026amp; pencil, but just a hasty note to let you know I  got your telegram. Mother sent it to me airmail.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI came here, thinking that, after all, you certainly couldn't be  bothered with me at the present time. I'm really terribly sorry about  Myrtle, because I liked her very much, as you know.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen, too, I have no money of my own and I'm afraid you didn't  understand that when I talked with you. I used what I did have to  finance myself down here, but, needless to say, this is certainly not  the place. I was far better off in New York.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNaturally your telegram sounded exciting and nothing could thrill me  more than to see you and finish my work in New Orleans. But I  assuredly do not feel as though I should impose upon you-and what  with the war etc. I'm afraid you're in no position to be imposed upon.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI have a cold and feel rotten, it's so damned uncomfortable here. I  think I will be going back to New York soon as Alabama is definitely  not a writer's haven. Please write me, c\/o V.H. Faulk, Box 346, M,  Ala.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMuch love to you and a kiss for Myrtle,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTruman\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eP.S. I hope you can read this \"nigger\" scrawl.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[Collection Gerald Clarke]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTO ELIZABETH AMES\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTruman Capote 1060 Park Ave. New York, N.Y. Jan. 23, '46\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMrs. Elizabeth Ames Director: Yaddo Saratoga Springs, N.Y.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDear Mrs. Ames,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI am interested to know the possibilities of spending some time at  YADDO this summer, as I am working on a book, a first novel, which I  hope to finish in the Fall; the book is to be published by Random  House: Robert N. Linscott is my editor. My stories have appeared in  Harper's Bazaar, Mademoiselle, Story, Prarie [sic] Schooner, and  other small reviews. I am twenty-one, from the South, now living in  New York. For a short period I worked at The New Yorker, then read  manuscripts for a motion-picture office, finally put together a  monthly collection of rather tired anecdotes for a digest magazine.  Now, at last, with the assistance of a publisher, I am able to go  ahead with my writing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSeveral friends who have been there tell me I would like YADDO very  much. Thank you, Mrs. Ames, for the consideration you may give this  letter.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMost sincerely, Truman Capote\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[Collection New York Public Library]","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303052103909,"sku":"NP9780375702419","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780375702419.jpg?v=1767742805","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/too-brief-a-treat-isbn-9780375702419","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}