Book Description
In 1966, everyone who was anyone wanted an invitation to Truman Capote's "Black and White Dance" in New York, and guests included Frank Sinatra, Norman Mailer, C. Z. Guest, Kennedys, Rockefellers, and more. Lavishly illustrated with photographs and drawings of the guests, this portrait of revelry at the height of the swirling, swinging sixties is a must for anyone interested in American popular culture and the lifestyles of the rich, famous, and talented.
Customer Reviews:
An entertaining social history.......2007-10-07
An enjoyable insight into the world of New York socialites and an unusual character who rose from small town anonymity to become a key power-broker in that world. The book also traces the personal traits which lead to his downfall. There is a great mix of colorful imagery of the lavish lifestyles and ultimate party, along with interesting social commentary. Truman's eccentricities are revealed in a way which doesn't allow him to become a caricature. A fun weekend read.
great gossipy goodness.......2007-08-18
a great, fun read. a nice look into truman capote's life, the social scene of nyc in the 60s and this fabulous par-tay!
Peering at the peerless.......2007-08-11
If you're fascinated by the 1960s, you'll love Davis's take of Truman Capote's legendary black and white ball held in the Grand Ballroom at the Plaza Hotel in November 1966. Davis has a gift for not patronizing her readers. To those readers who were living, thinking, socially conscious adults in the 60s and can personally recall Capote's self-aggrandizing antics, she retells the familiar story in a unique and lively manner. For those readers coming to this story very much after-the-fact, she succinctly provides all the necessary background information without overloading the story with unnecessary details. What I enjoyed most was Davis's ability to convey the tone and mood of the era she's describing. Nineteen sixty-six, in retrospect, seems to have been a pivotal year. Positioned as it was at the virtual midpoint between the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers, it is neither a time of great optimism (American jingoism) nor a time of open rebellion. But clearly, the old order is beginning to fray at the seams. The anxiety people felt over not being invited to what promised to be "the party of the century" is hard to fathom today and is almost touching in its pathos. And to read over the list of "the invited" (which Davis provides as an appendix) is in a strange way somewhat comforting. Whatever their faults, these people (with the possible exception of Lee Radziwill) were at least famous because of their accomplishments or social status. But clearly the era of celebrities who would be "famous solely for being famous" was not far off, and Davis does a good job of suggesting its immanence. One can't help wondering if Capote's party didn't in some way help to bring it about. The last two chapters ("Hangover" and "Afterword") close the story with sobering accounts of Capote's artistic decline and of what eventually happened to some of Capote's famous guests. As social history or memento mori, THE PARTY OF THE CENTURY is a thoroughly satisfying read.
wrong info....about Mrs. Gloria Guinness.......2007-05-22
Ms.Davis yes,give us suppostly a good title,but inmediatly when I read the first 4 chapters...ohhh big dissapointment...no big research,about
the "ball of the siècle"...either her "swans"..for example..Mrs.Gloria
Guinness was born in Guadalajara,capital of the Jalisco,the richest and
more snobish place in all Mexico,for more detail in a patio downtown house
between the El Carmen and El Pilar churches in that city...then,one of
the most elegants areas in all Guadalajara.
In honor to the truth there is a big difference between born and grew in
Guadalajara(considerated in Mexico as Boston or Philadelphia are in USA)..¡¡to born and grew up in a ugly cargo ships port as Veracruz¡¡
Her`s mother was a very well know Hat designer...witch its not the same a "seamstress"...the family Rubio-Alatorre still living in Guadalajara
and are very well know people on the very close circle of the old
names of the higth society in the capital of the State of Jalisco,mostly
of those families trace his lineage to the XVI century...¡¡and the most
"news" on the beginning of the XVIII siècle¡¡
The world famous classical look of Mrs.Guinness,was and still very usual in Guadalajara:a twin set cardigan...black little dress and pearls...always pearls...in a city famous for the extraordinary beauty
and charm and natural elegance of the womans,the elegance of Mrs.Guinness was normal...another example was the recently death Countess de Teba y Baños(neè Elena Verea y Corcuera)another extraordinary women born and raised in Guadalajara,who` was married in Paris and living in Madrid and Guadalajara(her mother was painted for Lazslo in Paris)...she was very close friend and muse of
Cristobal Balenciaga,the king of the Haute Couture in Paris for many
years...Thats for sure Ms.Deborah Davis,author of this book maybe needs more exactly information about the "swans" of Mr. Capote..¡¡ not only go to the Wikipedia..¡¡
best regards
Fernando Partida Rocha
Great Read.......2007-02-19
If you're a Truman Capote fan, I thoroughly recommend this book. I enjoyed my encounter with Truman and his ascendence into society. An easy read,and fascinating to read about his never to be repeated, Black and White Ball.
Amazon.com
Nobody can match George Plimpton as an adroit weaver of interviews into a tight narrative fabric. Plimpton can make even a negligible life into a magic-carpet ride, as in his editing of Jean Stein's perennial bestseller, Edie, about Andy Warhol's victim-starlet Edie Sedgwick.
In Truman Capote, Plimpton has an infinitely more important subject, who worked his way down from the top into the shallow pit of druggy celebrity. His book doesn't knock the definitive biography Capote off the shelf, but it's much more fun to read. Plimpton interviewed more than a hundred people--from Capote's childhood to his peak period, 1966, when his Black and White Ball defined high society and In Cold Blood launched the true crime genre, all the way down to his last, sad days as a bitchy caricature of himself. Joanna Carson complains that Plimpton's book is "gossip," which it gloriously is. But it's also brimming with important literary history, and it helps in the Herculean task of sorting out the truth from Capote's multitudinous, entertaining lies; for instance, In Cold Blood turns out to be not strictly factual. James Dickey, whose similar self-destruction is chronicled in Summer of Deliverance, delivers here a good definition of Capote's true gift to literature: "The scene stirring with rightness and strangeness, the compressed phrase, the exact yet imaginative word, the devastating metaphorical aptness, a feeling of concentrated excess which at the same time gives the effect of being crystalline." --Tim Appelo
Book Description
He was the most social of writers, and at the height of his career, he was the very nexus of the glamorous worlds of the arts, politics and society, a position best exemplified by his still legendary Black and White Ball. Truman truly knew everyone, and now the people who knew him best tell his remarkable story to bestselling author and literary lion, George Plimpton.
Using the oral-biography style that made his Edie (edited with Jean Stein) a bestseller, George Plimpton has blended the voices of Capote's friends, lovers, and colleagues into a captivating and narrative. Here we see the entire span of Capote's life, from his Southern childhood, to his early days in New York; his first literary success with the publication of Other Voices, Other Rooms; his highly active love life; the groundbreaking excitement of In Cold Blood, the first "nonfiction novel"; his years as a jet-setter; and his final days of flagging inspiration, alcoholism, and isolation. All his famous friends and enemies are here: C.Z. Guest, Katharine Graham, Lauren Bacall, Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, John Huston, William F. Buckley, Jr., and dozens of others.
Full of wonderful stories, startlingly intimate and altogether fascinating, this is the most entertaining account of Truman Capote's life yet, as only the incomparable George Plimpton could have done it.
Customer Reviews:
A fictional biography of Capote.......2007-07-16
As a fan of Plimpton's witty style, I picked up the Capote biography, only to realize that Plimpton didn't write it. Instead, he interviewed dozens of people and let them tell Capote's life story. At first, I was mildly disappointed but soon understood the irony: Capote was infamous for his gossipping, and now these acquaintances are gossipping about him. In the same way that Capote created a "nonfiction novel" with In Cold Blood, Plimpton compiled a "subjective biography" that focuses on Capote's public persona more than his private life. (Perhaps because much of his private life was public.) The interviews are colored by the subjects' relationships with Capote, and many of them have an agenda in talking about him, so I would not recommend the book to someone who wants to read a factual chronicle. However, it is entertaining and gives a portrait of the New York high society--in which authors had a place, unlike today (I think)--probably better than a standard biography could provide.
Inimitable Plimpton.......2006-11-05
Full of salacious detail and struck through with the the vagaries of human nature, this oral history highlights, in an immensely readable way, the arc of ambition that propels the talented Tuman Capote to reach beyond the world into which he was born. The journey takes us on a wonderful romp through post WWII New York society and careens toward a place where our subject falls to his own singular sirens. It was a great Nantucket beach read.
A Capote Reader.......2006-06-26
I really liked this book. I am a Truman Capote fan, and the book was wonderful. A must read for Capote fans especially!
TRUMAN.......2006-04-10
Honestly, Capote would have loved this book, he loved the subject above all others. Ths late Plimpton does a fine job getting many of Capote's friends and admirors, as well as detractors, to give an insightful look at this singular man. Capote was complex and manipulative, but people were drawn to him, he was the ultimate self promoter. I really think even those who hated him, missed him when he died. He could be heartless and cruel, but he had a certain quality, I guess it's called star power, that made him a very powerful friend to have, he rode the success of In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffanys to the apex of society. He was painfully insecure and it's sad that he felt people were only his friend because of his ability to write great books, it's tragic that late in life he felt the need to make up the fact that he was writing this masterpiece, I think he was terrified of writing the book that would follow In Cold Blood, that I believe is what lead him to write the ill advised Unaswered Prayers. You will really want to avert your eyes when the vail is pulled away on Capote.
A great look at Capote.......2006-04-09
This book is one of the best biographies I have read. Quoting from people who knew him instead of having the author interpret Capote's life from the interview smakes the reader feel as if he is getting to really see what Capote was like. It also gives the reader a glimps of the society that Capote was raised and lived in.
Customer Reviews:
fruitcake memories of truman capote & sook.......2001-01-15
Marie Rudisill is absolutely fabulous with this fruitcake book. This is by far the most wonderful cook book i have ever seen in my entire life. I was also able to read other of Rudisills books and she is one of the best writers there is and has ever been. Two thumbs up to Rudisill on the Jay Leno show. She was funny keeping Jay and Mel Gibson in line. I strongly recommend everyone to try this delightful fruitcake book. Check out The Southern Haunting of Truman Capote, it was inspiring learning about his childhood in the south.
FRUITCAKE MEMORIES.......2001-01-03
MARIE RUDISILL HAS OUT DONE HERSELF WITH THIS FANTASTIC BOOK. IT NOT ONLY GIVES WONDERFUL RECEIPS IT ALSO SHARES MEMORIES OF TRUMAN CAPOTE AND SOOK FAULK..THIS IS WITHOUT A DOUBT THIS BEST COOKBOOK I HAVE EVER OWNED. I ALSO HAD THE PLEASURE OF SEEING MS. RUDISILL ON THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO AND MEL GIBSON, THIS WAS THE BEST EPSIODE I EVER SAW..SHE HAD NO TROUBLE KEEPING THESE TWO MEN IN LINE, AND IT SEEMED THEY ENJOYED EVERY BIT OF IT...
DYNAMITE.......2000-12-17
A wonderful reflection of a generation as much as a collection of effective recipes. It doesn't just seem appropriate that the subject of fruitcake stirs this focused book. The times were tough and the cake ingredients reflected that. Speaking of charmingly tough, Marie Rudisill's moments with Mel Gibson and Jay Leno should make the Late Night hall of fame. As a Capote aunt, you'd almost expect a wry scolding, but with both men up to their wrists in fruitcake batter, the pleadings to be careful with her prized recipe were loving and comfortable. So is this book.
Book Description
Based on hundreds of hours of interviews with the man who authored In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany's, as well as with nearly everyone who knew him, this absorbing, definitive biography follows Truman Capote from his eccentric childhood in Alabama to the heights of New York society. Featuring many photographs, this book also candidly recounts a gifted and celebrated writer's descent into the life of alcohol and drugs that would ultimately consume his bulldog spirit and staggering talent—but not before he'd hobnob with the likes of Grace Paley and Lee Radziwill, feud outrageously with Gore Vidal and Jacqueline Susann, and stage at New York's Plaza Hotel the sensational Black and White Ball.
Customer Reviews:
Stunning Insight.......2007-10-15
This Biography of Truman Capote by Gerald Clarke is breathtaking in its' inisght into the man and his deamons. Capote was a genius to say the least but was human in his hurts and disappointments in life. People obviously used him over and over again. As a gay man who wanted to be accepted he was terribly vulnerable and thrown away like garbage by many of his so called friends. Lee Radziwall called him a "Fag" which hurt him deeply. Many gay people have used alchohol to just make it through life. Mr.Capote was not alone. This is truly a remarkable inside look into a tortured life.
Details of Truman Capote.......2007-05-10
Although the large size of this book may concern you, it's a quick read. Truman Capote's life is painted in great detail.
Wonderful, Wonderful............2007-03-13
I would like to congratulate the author of this book. Mr. Clarke, you are a wonderful writer. I really enjoyed this book. It was interesting from the beginning to the end. Thank you. Oh by the way, I saw the movie as well. Forget the movie! The movie only concentrates on just one aspect of the book. Book has so many interesting facts. Read the book! Read the Book!
Interesting.......2006-11-06
Don't let the size of this book daunt you. It reads as breezily as a 500-page PEOPLE Magazine article.
I was never a big fan of Capote's; my memories of him are more from the last years of his life, when he was drunk on a lot of talk shows. But I found this book interesting and have since bought a copy of "The Complete Stories of Truman Capote."
If You're Reading This Because of The Movies..........2006-10-24
...you might end up a little disappointed since the section devoted to Capote's writing of IN COLD BLOOD reads a bit sparse compared to the film. (I haven't seen INFAMOUS yet so I'm going by CAPOTE).
I saw the film CAPOTE and was fascinated by the story behind the story of IN COLD BLOOD. How far a writer will go to "get" his story is a powerful dramatic premise (and the film makes a good case that Capote would answer for his actions for the rest of his life) and Philip Seymour Hoffman does a masterful job of humanizing him.
But after reading Clarke's biography, I wonder if the CAPOTE filmmakers added the humanity to his character in the film--and how much he actually had in real life.
Capote insinuates himself into New York society, completely betrays them in print, and then becomes an exaggerated parody of them himself in his private life and relationships.
His gay lovers throughout his life appear to be spoiled monsters using and abusing him at every turn. Not that Truman was too far above them himself: his campaign to literally destroy one errant lover by pouring sugar into his gas tank, sending goons to break his legs (they didn't follow through), and firing that closeted lover only to hire his outraged wife was as darkly funny as it was ridiculously frightening.
All the gossip from New York society to Washington royalty to Hollywood insiders made this an interesting read. The author does a great job of drawing from many, many sources to also make this a very literary read.
This is a masterful warts-and-all biography. As bitter and vindictive as Capote could be, I still felt sorry to see him end so badly: suffering from seizures and hallucinations, drinking himself to death while gobbling down pills, abandoned by the rich society he'd worshipped and the gay lovers who looted his bank accounts (especially his "life partner" who wouldn't put off any trips to see Truman in any of his many hospital stays). Very sad.
Capote's life had, for me, two great tragedies: he destroyed his talent and he destroyed himself.
Book Description
Extraordinary conversations with the writer and celebrity who elevated talk to art and gossip to literature; "a candid, controversial, and engrossing read... from a tiny terror who wore brass knuckles on his tongue"
-Parade
Who but Truman Capote would dare to say that about (among many, many others) Jacqueline Onassis, Norman Mailer, Montgomery Clift, Andr Gide, Marilyn Monroe, Lee Radziwill, Tennessee Williams, J. D. Salinger, Gore Vidal, and Elizabeth Taylor? Equally pointed is Capote's talk about himself-his childhood and early fame, his bouts with drugs and alcohol, his homosexuality, his assessment of his talent and his work, including In Cold Blood. He has definite opinions about good writing, and he isn't shy about saying who he thinks the biggest phonies are among his fellow writers. Conversations with Capote-which Capote intended to be the definitive in-depth interview-makes both the man and his times come alive and has what the San Diego Union called the "quality that will bring readers to it again and again."
Customer Reviews:
Highly Recommended.......2006-07-25
Truman Capote was a great writer and self-promoter. Both characteristics come through in these interviews with Lawrence Grobel, an interviewer who has done his homework and only intrudes when he has something to add.
The book stands up well on its own merits, but will prove more enjoyable if you read some backgound material first, notably (in order of priority) "Music for Chameleons," Gerald Clarke's first-rate biography, and "In Cold Blood."
After you've read it, you may want to watch A & E's excellent documentary on Capote's life.
You Will Want to Read the Whole Thing.......2006-04-23
I own several books of conversations with authors. This is the first one I've wanted to read cover-to-cover without pausing for a breath. It's the first one I haven't been tempted to skim, looking for the best nuggets, because this one is FULL of nuggets. Capote isn't afraid to say, flat-out, what is on his mind. The chapter about his contemporaries is particularly interesting to me.
For instance, of Faulker he says: "Well, he was completely reckless. I'm not a great admirer of Faulkner. He never had the slightest influence on me at all. I like three or four short stories of his, 'That Evening Sun,' and I like one novel of his very much, called LIGHT IN AUGUST. But for the most part, he's a highly confusing, uncontrolled writer."
Which is all absolutely reasonable. Then Capote adds, "I knew Faulkner very well. He was a great friend of mine. Well, as much as you could be a friend of his, unless you were a fourteen-year-old nymphet. Then you could be a great friend!"
And Capote doesn't hold back about any of his other contemporaries, either, like Ken Kesey, Jack Kerouac, Norman Mailer, Gertrude Stein, and more. For instance, when the interviewer expresses his respect for Bellow's HENDERSON THE RAIN KING, Capote says, "Oh no. Dull, dull."
This book also has several photographs of Capote. The quality of the photos, at least in my softcover edition, are rather poor, unfortunately, but many of them I've never seen before, such as the one with Truman showing up to a court appearance on a drunk driving charge in shorts! The caption reads: "He [the judge] was very insulted...Actually, I looked quite smart. I had a very smart pair of shorts on and a very smart jacket and shirt and sandals."
In some ways, this is like reading a great comedy routine, yet there are definitely undercurrents of anger and sadness in this book. I highly recommend it.
Capote at his best.......2006-03-07
This is the book that makes you sad at the prospect of Truman Capote dying before he could finish his last novel, but you suspect that he didn't have to finish it since you get a lot of it from these interviews. He was one of the most fascinating figures in literary history and his insights into art, literature and celebrity are amazing.
There's a running rivalry with Norman Mailer, a dismissal of the beats, discussion of Breakfast at Tiffany's. He talks about interviewing the killers for In Cold Blood and how that led to other interviews with convicted killers. He discusses Hemmingway and leaves the reader with one of the best lines ever - "I am the man that Hemingway pretended to be." which is even more interesting when you consider Hemingway's repressed homosexuality (or accusations thereof) in light of Capote's openly gay personae that he displayed when that could get you killed.
Be warned. Once you start reading this book, you won't be able to put it down. So set time aside so you can finish it in one sitting.
Funny read.......2005-11-09
everything and perhaps a little more than you want to know about Truman Capote. A nice easy to read bok.
Ouch............2002-06-30
This is a great bed-side reader. Well, maybe not, because, once you start reading, you may not be able to put it down. Truman Capote started out as a celebrated, controversial writer, became the "enfante terrible", and spent his final years as a sad, outrageous, drug addicted talk show guest, more known for his scathing celebrity, his writing glory a thing of the past. He first achieved renown for his breakthrough novel, "Other Voices, Other Rooms", which was one of the first books to dare have a homosexual undercurrent, but is probably most well known for his classic bestseller, "In Cold Blood", about the brutal slayings of a midwest family, and, just as much about their slayers, two loser drifters whom Capote unjudgingly befriended. By the time these interviews were conducted, by "Playboy" interviewer Lawrence Grobel, Capotes literary fame had preceded him, and he had become, to many, an outrageous joke. While his public deterioration was sad and shocking...he often appeared on television or at appearances "under the influence", during his more lucid times, his observations were still unpredictably entertaining. How much actual writing he did during the last ten years or so of his life is widely speculated, his ability to do so maybe ended. But, back to this book....During these conducted interviews, Capote talks about the things he has done, and those he has known... he socialized with the most famous of his day, though how much of what he said was fact or fiction has been questioned by many. To say he is sometimes mean spirited is an understatement. If he liked you, he really liked you, but, if not, oh my....watch out. You would be verbally splayed for all to see. His comments were meant to shock, and they certainly achieved their desired effect. But they are done so brilliantly and outrageously that you can only cackle at his daring to say what no one else dared even think. He had no problem, when asked here about certain fellow writers or acquaintances by name, in describing them as "ghastly", "lousy", "talentless", "dull", etc..and his elaborations are scathingly, wittily entertaining. Ex: About Jack Kerouac. "That's not writing, that's typewriting." Jackie Susanne: "She looks like a truck driver in drag". Georgia O'Keefe: "I wouldn't pay 25 cents to spit on a Georgia O'Keefe painting!". What saves him from maybe just being viewed as a "not nice" person, are his extreme intelligence, wit, humor, and his always brutal honesty. This fascinating book is so entertaining that I am hard pressed to give just a few examples or excerpts from it. But I loved his response when Grobel poses the question to Capote, who in his lifetime had befriended (and later was publicly alienated by) many of the super wealthy, "How are the rich different? Is it just that they have more money?" Capote responded "No, no. The real difference between rich and regular people is that the rich serve such marvelous vegetables. Little fresh born things, scarcely out of the earth. Little baby corn, little baby peas, little lambs that have been RIPPED out of their mothers' wombs. That's the REAL difference!". Truman had a long, drawn out, public demise, and died what was apparently a welcome death after years of suffering. While many would have him being remembered as just a sad, malicious , social climbing, venemous celebrity, it is his record of brilliant writing and his incredible wit which will stand out. And the realization that, underneath it all, was just a sad little boy, trying to make alot of noise. Of all the books written about Capote, I have found this the most revealing and fascinating. Why read ABOUT him, when you can hear him, in all his outrageous splendor? As little Truman says, when asked to define himself: "I am a homosexual. I am a drug addict. I am a genius."
Average customer rating:
- Is There a Way to Give 50 Stars?
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Dear Genius: A Memoir of My Life With Truman Capote
Jack Dunphy
Manufacturer: Mcgraw-Hill
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ASIN: 0070183171 |
Customer Reviews:
Is There a Way to Give 50 Stars?.......2001-08-06
Jack Dunphy's literary career was doubly cursed: first by his tendency to write hard, dark, and often bleak stories, the kind that rarely stand much of a chance with general audiences; second by his long relationship with Truman Capote, which had the effect of putting the far lesser-known Dunphy even further into the shadows. Those few who bother to seek out Dunphy's work now usually do so because they are Truman Capote fans and are curious about Capote's long-time paramour; but the fact is, unless a reader's taste in fiction is unusually wide-ranging (as I like to think mine is), the reader who likes Capote is very unlikely to enjoy the fiction of Jack Dunphy. Two more different writers, indeed, can hardly be imagined. Where Capote is lyrical, Dunphy is hard-edged; where Capote is sweet, almost sentimental, Dunphy can be merciless.
And "Dear Genius" is exactly the kind of brilliant Dunphy fiction that is practically guaranteed to alienate Capote fans. Yes, fiction: "Dear Genius," though billed as a memoir, is actually a *novel.* It does include Dunphy and Capote as characters (Dunphy narrates some sections), and one can safely assume that there is a good deal of factual material in the sections describing their lives together (or, more often, not together). But, in a move so audacious that one can hardly find words for it, Dunphy has interlaced a purely fictional narrative into the material, the story of a doubting priest, Father Synge, whose faltering faith is given a boost by a random encounter with an aging and drunk Truman Capote. But Father Synge is not really fictional: as Dunphy's headnote indicates, Synge is really himself, another version of himself. And Capote appears in a different guise too: as a brilliant young black boy named Robert Deveraux whom it will be Father's Synge's job to save from a dysfunctional mother. Truth and fiction, fiction and truth are interwoven here in scenes that can be so moving they bring tears to one's eyes---never more so than in the devastating final pages, as Father Synge comes to Dunphy's house to tell him that Capote has died. The final paragraph of "Dear Genius"---heartbroken, heart-breaking---deserves to rank right up there with Joyce's description of the falling snow at the end of "The Dead." Yes, it really is that good!
But "Dear Genius" is probably doomed to remain out of print and unread. The book irritates Capote readers, and in part they are justified in this: emblazoning the cover with the words "A Memoir of My Life With Truman Capote" is clearly false advertising, and it should be known that the subtitle was not Dunphy's but his publisher's (Dunphy had subtitled the manuscript "A Tribute To Truman Capote," which is vastly more accurate). But, over and above this, Dunphy is simply too demanding for many readers; he asks too much of those who are looking in his writing for something "like" his vastly more famous friend. Dunphy was like no one but himself. But if you are a reader who can rise to the challenge of difficult and utterly unique writing, do yourself a favor: find, read, and re-read a copy of "Dear Genius." (And while you're at it, do the same with Dunphy's "John Fury" and "Nightmovers.")
Average customer rating:
- Stocking Stuffer of a Book
- Don't need to save much time for this small gem
- Another winner by Capote...
- classic
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A House on the Heights
Truman Capote
Manufacturer: Little Bookroom
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1892145243
Release Date: 2002-02-01 |
Book Description
The tranquil life he led in the quiet enclave of Brooklyn Heights stood in sharp contrast to the glittering scene he adored on the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge, but for a few years in the 1950's and '60's, Truman Capote happily made his home in a yellow brick house on Willow Street. By turns wistful and farcical, A House on the Heights vividly evokes a neighborhood Capote described as among Brooklyn's "splendid contradictions," a world of grand homes and dimly recalled gentility, of mysterious warehouses and cartoonish street thugs, of antiques and dowagers, a broad yard overhung with wisteria, and the famous Esplanade with its incomparable view—all rendered in Capote's deft and stylish prose.
Customer Reviews:
Stocking Stuffer of a Book.......2005-10-06
Yes, it is a tiny book. Even though I read the review here that mentions that, when it arrived this week I was surprised. It is something he wrote for a magazine way back when. The Brooklyn he wrote about has changed, yet again. Did any of us think we would live to see Brooklyn become so expensive you couldn't afford to live there! It has happened, my friends. This book is a history of the borough and the area. NYC changes like the fall leaves. It grows and grows and changes and changes. He captured the Brooklyn of his time so elloquently you feel as if he lived 100 years ago. I am going to give this book to all my friends for the December holidays. It will fit nicely in a Christmas stocking. Truman Capote's books, now more than ever, are a must read. Other than Dominick Dunne, who do we have that writes so well and transports us to these exotic places with exotic people we would never have an opportunity to meet? You will put this book in a special place so everyone can see it. I already have.
Don't need to save much time for this small gem.......2005-06-03
I'll post a more extensive review later, when I've had time to do more than scan the book. But I want to warn buyers that it's a very slim, undersized book of only 43 pages, with lots of space between the lines. If Capote was paid by the word for this article-turned-book, he didn't make much.
Another winner by Capote..........2003-02-16
I rated this one four stars because I can't help compare it to my two personal favourites, 'Music For Chameleons' and 'In Cold Blood.'
Nonetheless, this book has all the beautiful Capote observations in it as well. Whenever Capote describes something or someone I am completely amazed. The visuals he brings forth in the readers mind are like no other. This one's a quick read. I was a lil' angry it was short because I wanted more beautiful sentences.
classic.......2002-04-15
Only reason I'm docking it a star is the typically tiresome bloviations of gadabout dilettante Georgie in the introduction. The presence of Georgie between the same covers as Truman might have some value for bulmics, but to me it's just repulsive. Beloved Truman wrote all too little, and Georgie keeps typing, typing, typing! When will it all end?
Book Description
The 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.
Capote 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 na•f 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
In Cold Blood; and Capote later in life, as things seemed to be unraveling. With cameos by a veritable who’s who of twentieth century glitterati,
Too Brief a Treat shines a spotlight on the life and times of an incomparable American writer.
Customer Reviews:
Better than a diary!.......2007-02-14
When you read personal correspondence written to friends, lovers, and business associates . . . well, it doesn't get any better! Candid, un-censored, witty, funny, revealing, cutting . . . it's all there! A great look at the true Truman Capote. Very interesting.
A sense of Capote.......2006-08-16
Letters are interesting to read and you get a real feeling for how needy he must have been to be loving everyone so much.
I think it is better to read his biography first, so that you know who the people are in the letters. It's a little confusing otherwise. That's what I plan to do.
Too Much Of A Good Thing.......2005-06-20
I always loved Truman Capote's writing and looked forward to this book oh, so much, especiallywhen I saw it was edited by the estimable Gerald Clarke, who has written so brilliantly on Capote in his biography (and who also wrote GET HAPPY, a terrific life of Judy Garland). (Hmmm, he must specialize in the tiny.)
But alas Capote's letters just aren't as good as his fiction. They seem hurried, scattered, as though he were writing too fast to revise, everything exactly the opposite of what one likes about the stories and filmscripts. I will say you do get a different side of him, and the outlines of his social world become clearer, so view this compilation as an addendum to the biography, and you won't go far wrong.
I was surprised to see him make so much of (i.e. flatter) Cecil Beaton, it sounded phony. It seems that he treated Newton Arvin pretty well all things put together. Some have said that he "used" Arvin to get ahead and then dumped him once he had found a measure of his own success. But Arvin can't have been an easy guy to live with IMHO. Another interesting correspondent is William Goyen. I think the best letter in all of TOO BRIEF A TREAT is Capote's letter congratulating Goyen on the achievement of THE HOUSE OF BREATH. That letter, in the perfection of its phrases and the conviction of its rapture, is alone worth the price of the book. It's a shame that Goyen later turned on Capote and treated him so shabbily. Good for Gerald Clarke for pointing this out.
Meanwhile the good news for Capote fans is that his novel SUMMER CROSSING, about which many of the letters to Bob Linscott are devoted, has been recovered and now, fifty-plus years later, it might be seeing the light of day. In the interim we will re-read these letters, hoping to scan in more data on the terrific catastrophe that was Truman Capote's life.
Not the treat I was expecting.......2004-12-08
Truman Capote is one of my all time favorite writers so I was surprised that his letters are somewhat of a disappointment. The letters span 46 years with the majority of them from the late 40s and 50s. It's too bad that there are only a handful of correspondence from Capote's celebrated period following the release of "In Cold Blood," a book which turned him into a celebrity. I suppose he was too busy with his success and celebrity to write letters during this period. There is nothing about his famous Black and White Ball or the infamous article which scandalized the jet set. Hardly anything is here from the 70s either, a period in which he was practically a household name, appearing in movies and talk shows.
What is included are letters to his editors, Robert Linscott and Bennett Cerf, discussing his work and responding to criticism. Many letters to his lovers also are included but Capote seemed to have been very discreet (unlike in public life). Letters to David Selznick and Jennifer Jones give us a glimpse into the years of Hollywood life but very little juicy gossip - they leave the reader wanting more. During the years of Capote's research for "In Cold Blood," he corresponded frequently with Alvin Dewey, the detective in charge of the case, and his wife Marie. These letters are mainly questions from Capote concerning details of the case and Capote providing the Deweys with access to his Hollywood friends. Letters to the Dewey's son, Alvin Jr., show remarkable affection and advice and criticism to an aspiring writer.
Capote was a wanderer and his letters were written from his various residences across the globe - Sicily, Spain, Paris, Switzerland, Venice, California, New York, Alabama, etc. Jack Dunphy, his longtime companion is often mentioned with love and affection. Cecil Beaton and Christopher Isherwood were also frequent correspondents, but again, very little gossip.
The letters do show that Capote was obviously a very compassionate man and despite his biting wit and bitchy persona, they reveal a warm and caring man.
A book for fans of the genre and of the man.......2004-10-02
"Your letter was too brief a treat, but a treat all the same; there is only one excitement to my day, and that is when the postman comes." So wrote the author who sometimes waited an hour for the best word to come to mind when engaged in concocting a novel, yet spun off letters to friends and colleagues like cotton candy.
Truman Capote, to whom fame came early and lasted long, called all of his correspondents by such adorations as "precious baby, darling child." To almost anyone he was likely to say, "much love, little blue eyes" or "I miss you 24 hours of the day" or "a thousand kisses, precious." It seemed that nearly everyone he wrote to was his darling, his love, and wanted showering with kisses.
Not that he couldn't be cutting and catty, though always with gentility, at least on paper: "I'm afraid he's set fire to too many bridges"; "he's furious because anyone other than himself is here" (of W.H. Auden); and, of Jimmy (James) Baldwin, "his essays are at least intelligent, though they almost invariably end on a fakely hopeful, hymn-singing note."
Of his early work on IN COLD BLOOD he wrote, "This is my last attempt at reportage." Like almost every writer, he wanted to know what the critics were really thinking and get copies of all his reviews. He managed to sound both humble and very puffy when referring to his successes, and terribly anxious about the fate of pieces in progress.
A collection of so very many letters (for that is all the book is) can start to feel water-logged after a while. It's a good thing to recall that posterity will not necessarily be fascinated by one's complaints about the cold, the prices of goods in foreign cities, or the antics of one's pets (and Truman had many). We would all make our letters more artistic and succinct if we imagined that they'd be read generations hence.
So we can speculate on two forking probabilities. One: that Capote well knew that his words would be taken for gemstones ages from now and wrote with the cagey casualness of the omniscient observer. Two: that Capote never imagined for an instant that anyone would collect his letters to friends and place them on the altar of memory for the entire world to see.
I prefer the second alternative, because I like thinking of Capote as a natural, sweet-hearted man, who showed his artistic brilliance to the public but saved his syrup and a touch of spice for his epistolary relationships.
TOO BRIEF A TREAT is a book for fans of the genre and of the man.
--- Reviewed by Barbara Bamberger Scott, author of WITH IT: A Year on the Carnival Trail
Average customer rating:
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CAPOTE A BIOGRAPHY
Manufacturer: Simon and Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HFQ7YQ |
Average customer rating:
- Mr. Richardson Goes Duck Hunting
- A mix of essays on artists, writers and tycoons
|
Sacred Monsters, Sacred Masters: Beaton, Capote, Dalí, Picasso, Freud, Warhol, and More
John Richardson
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Point to Point Navigation: A Memoir (Vintage)
ASIN: 0679424903
Release Date: 2001-11-06 |
Amazon.com
From the scandalous murder trial of a French art dealer's widow to photographer-designer Cecil Beaton's peculiar "romance" with Greta Garbo, this sinfully entertaining book lets readers brush up on 20th-century cultural history and the vagaries of human nature at the same time. While we wait for volume III of John Richardson's acclaimed Life of Picasso, the 28 sketches assembled here make an agreeable diversion, revealing Richardson's lighter side and formidable knowledge of art history. Admiring portraits of Chilean collector Eugenia Errazuriz ("Picasso's Other Mother") and British painter Lucian Freud are among the very few laudatory pieces in a collection notable for its enjoyable emphasis on the less edifying traits of the rich and/or famous. The Sitwells were spiteful mythomaniacs. Armand Hammer was "a veteran con man." As for the sexual proclivities of Salvador Dalí and his wife Gala... well, Richardson gives you all the gory details, some of which would have impressed the Marquis de Sade. Richardson appears as a character in several pieces: he worked for Hammer, spent a summer with Truman Capote in Venice, and sat for a portrait by Andy Warhol. But these appearances seldom seem self-aggrandizing; they're integrated into the essays with the same smoothness that distinguishes his prose. --Wendy Smith
Book Description
Robert Hughes has described Richardson's multivolume biography of Picasso as "a masterpiece in the making." In this collection of his best shorter pieces, culled from more than thirty years' artistic and literary commentary and reviews, Richardson demonstrates the same dazzling narrative style that has earned him the reputation as one of our foremost biographers.
As a contributor to Vanity Fair, The New York Review of Books, House and Garden, and The New Yorker, John Richardson has a reputation for stimulating readers with his frank, discerning characterizations of art-world personalities as well as celebrities from a variety of other milieus-- people such as Truman Capote, Armand Hammer, Lucian Freud, Andy Warhol, and Peggy Guggenheim.
As readers await the third volume of
A Life of Picasso, they will be diverted by this witty, wonderfully intelligent collection of approximately thirty essays, extensively revised and updated for this publication, each of which is illustrated with artwork or photographs.
Customer Reviews:
Mr. Richardson Goes Duck Hunting.......2002-11-12
Having read the first two volumes of Mr. Richardson's "A Life Of Picasso," and having thoroughly enjoyed them, I went into this book with high expectations. Overall, I was disappointed. Granted, the book is a collection of some of the articles that Mr. Richardson has written for popular magazines over the past 30 years or so. The audience for, say, a "Vanity Fair" article is not the same as the audience for a scholarly journal. But Mr. Richardson acknowledges in the preface that he had hundreds of articles to choose from. He states that he made a conscious decision not to include his more academic essays. That is a shame. Because some of the material that is included, about such people as Lucien Freud and Brice Marden, for example, gives a tantalizing glimpse of what might have been. Here is Lucien Freud on why he chooses to paint nudes of, almost exclusively, close friends and relatives: "Aesthetic and biological truth-telling is what my painting is all about.....the fact that a model would never find himself or herself in this particular situation were it not at the painter's behest makes for vulnerability.....vulnerability would not be an issue if I used professional models. But I don't, because professional models have been stared at so much that they have grown another skin. When they take their clothes off, they are not naked; their skin has become another garment." I would like to have seen more keen insights into the artistic process, such as this one, and less of the following (this is from the essay on Salvador Dali and his wife Gala): "One of my responsibilities (as vice president of the firm that acted as Dali's dealer) was keeping the artist to the terms of his contract- a one-man show of new work, every two years. This was no easy task, given that his eye was so bleary and his hand so shaky that assistants had taken over most of his work. I could not help feeling sorry for the seedy old conjurer with his rhinoceros-horn wand, leopard-skin overcoat, and designer whiskers, not to speak of his surreal breath." For the most part, you can't see any reason to dredge these essays up and put them into book form. There is a lot of gossip, particularly about peoples' sex lives (The Dalis, Vita Sackville-West, Peggy Guggenheim, etc.) and there are several pieces where Mr. Richardson takes on subjects that are just too easy to ridicule, such as Dr. Barnes, The Sitwells and Armand Hammer. (Hence, the title of my review.) Since Mr. Richardson states that he and his assistants had to do a lot of work to update these essays, there is really no excuse for some of the blatant errors- such as writing (in the essay on the Merchant/Ivory movie "Surviving Picasso"- where Richardson is trying to make the point that moviemakers have done a poor job of portraying major artists) that Anthony Quinn played van Gogh. (He did not. In "Lust For Life" Kirk Douglas played van Gogh and Quinn played Paul Gauguin.) In another piece, the statement is made that the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize is made in Norway. That's wrong. It is made in Stockholm, Sweden. In the essay on Pablito Picasso, Pablo's grandson, Mr. Richardson writes that it took seven years to settle the Picasso estate. As Picasso died in 1973, this would bring us to 1980. But the essay informs us that the estate was divided up in 1990. This may seem as though I am nitpicking. But, remember, Mr. Richardson is working on the third volume of his Picasso biography. The first two volumes have been rightly hailed as a tremendous achievement. The cheap shots and silly errors contained in "Sacred Monsters, Sacred Masters" are beneath a scholar of Mr. Richardson's ability. I still give this book three-stars, as even though the collection is uneven, there are several good essays. Besides the pieces on Lucien Freud and Brice Marden, which I mentioned earlier, there are thoughtful articles on Klee, Miro and Braque, for example. On the whole, however, one gets the impression that Mr. Richardson's publisher wanted something from him while they were waiting for the third volume of "A Life Of Picasso." There's nothing wrong with that. It's just that a little more care should have been taken in deciding what that something was going to be.
A mix of essays on artists, writers and tycoons.......2002-04-10
Sacred Monsters, Sacred Masters provides a mix of essays on artists, writers and tycoons, each illustrated with a photo or piece of art and selected by the author because they are about special people he's known. While non-artists are included, this is reviewed here for its focus on many of the fine artists Richardson has encountered, from Dali and Warhol to Marden and Picasso. Sacred Monsters, Sacred Masters is an intriguing collection of images and insights.
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