Societys sacred monsters are in a state of shock.
Never have you heard such cries of betrayal, such screams of outrage.
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
This story first appeared in the February 9, 1976, issue ofNew YorkMagazine.
FIRST SOCIALITE (HUSBAND): I cant read this thing!
(Tossing aside Truman Capotes magazine excerpt from his forthcoming novelAnswered Prayers.)
SECOND SOCIALITE (WIFE): But darling, you must read all of it.
If you dont, we wont have anything to talk to anybody about.
The social stakes are too high.
Being on the wrong side in one of these tempests in a teabag could be fatal.
Or what if Truman Capote prevails and comes out on top?
What if he writes a sequel that tells even more?
Staying alive and well in society means never zigging when you should zag.
Societys sacred monsters at the top have been in a state of shock ever since.
What did Capote write that so enraged so many?
Many other names were dropped, some in passing, some to devastating effect.
Truman just grinned and said, I didnt either.)
For years Capote has been societys adored and adorable resident intellect and court jester.
Capote has always been the gossips gossip nonpareil.
Oh yes, of course, he was well, everyone knew, queer.
You know, that sort of thing.
Whats more, society believed Truman to be a lightweight climber who aspired to stay in its good graces.
(Snorts Truman, Yes, they have always made that mistake about me!
He was, after all, so seductive, so naughty, so charming.
He knew everything about everybody and whats more had total recall.
There they are, splashed through the pages ofEsquirelike hollandaise that has missed the asparagus.
And that aint all theres more to come.
It is all going to be bound between hard covers into a book.
Capote, meanwhile, is also a literary name.
So the Establishment world that reads and writes has also joined the hue and cry.
There seems to be no such thing as an indifferent opinion of LCB 65.
LCB 65 was a one-shot last November, but its reverberating ripples still lash both coasts.
The machinations going on behind the back of the people who are in the book you wouldnt believe.
They all want to stay in my favor but maintain a great front of animosity.)
Capote rushed back to California from New York to finish up another 30,000-word installment for May publication.
They are on next, and then therell be four more magazine assaults beforeAnswered Prayersappears in hardcover.
says societys favorite extra man, real-estate investor Jerome Zipkin, shooting his immaculate French cuffs.
He will no longer be received socially anywhere.
Whats more those who receive him will no longer be received.
People think, What a shame that a great talent should be reduced to writing gossip.
Some people are really hurt because theyve been kind to him.
The Paleys were always so fond of him.
But Elsie hasnt been hurt.
She didnt even read the piece.
She couldnt care less.
All shell say is Je ne le connais pas!
Columnist Jack OBrian: He knows what will sell in this market … hes Jackie Susann with an education.
Writer Wyatt Cooper, husband of Gloria Vanderbilt: I hate talking when my feelings are negative.
Im very fond of Truman.
We used to have lunch, gossip, and it was fun.
But lately it wasnt.
His viciousness ceased to make it fun.
I even talked to him about it two years ago and he thanked me later for caring.
I think this destroys all the things he has built up.
He cant really pretend to sneer at these people in the Jet Set.
He worked too hard to be in himself.
Of course Gloria is offended!
It could have been great.
His mother was an alcoholic and killed herself, and children of alcoholic mothers often end up attacking women.
Truman would like to be glamorous and beautiful.
Now he has his ultimate revenge, by making them ridiculous in print.
Director Peter Glenville: Ignoble, utterly ignoble!
And societys favorite current story is of how Truman phoned Paley to ask what he thought of LCB 65.
I really havent time for it.
Truman found Wyatt Cooper unable to lunch with him when he was in New York over the holidays.
(Cooper: How could I out of loyalty to Gloria.
She says shell spit at him if she sees him.)
No, dont mention her name its too sad.
Nedda Logan informed Dotson that that dirty little toad is never coming to my parties again.
(Some dialogue in LCB 65 refers to a Logan soiree: How was it?
If you have never been to a party before.)
Why, theres nothing for me to write.
Trumans done it all himself!
The paragraph on the fresh vegetables and their size is really unique in the article.
Its a ravishing statement on the rich!
I couldnt help laughing.
Then there are the defenders of Art.
Rust Hills, a former fiction editor: Fascinating stuff.
Yes, of course, its okay he published it all.
I think the artist does have a supreme right to use any material.
Why cant people get that through their heads?
This is brilliant stuff!
… Dotson Rader: Marvelous, beautiful writing.
Its unimportant whether its true or not, since it is presented as fiction.
Truman was always treated by these people as a kind of curiosity, expected to do his act.
That was humiliation coming from people who had no qualifications other than being rich and social.
Guest: Everyone knows the mans a professional and they told him those things anyway.
Hes a dear friend of mine, but I wouldnt discuss very private matters with him.
I dont even know who those fictional people are.
They always want some candy-ass lie written about themselves.
These people feel a good press is owed them.
So why are they so shocked when somebody tells even a slightly unattractive truth about them?
In this gathering, these youthful realists were amused and entertained by Capotes daring.
Most of them thought the writing was important.
Only one of the seven Beauties completely disapproved of the piece.
General laughter and the retort: Were sorry you cant express yourself more definitely.
But such dissenting opinions were in the majority in the weeks to come.
Enter reporter, tape recorder cocked, to find Truman talking with the departing screenwriter Peter Viertel.
Ill have more to say if you dont use it.
I protest that I havent his fabled total recall.
Oh, youll do all right.
Youll see, youll get a better story this way.
Already the interview is out of my hands into the subtle control of Capote.
He inspires a compelling intimacy.
I begin to tell him everything.
I spurt confidences, betray my instincts, and allow myself to be drawn out.
For each question I ask, Truman asks two.
Seductive is how one longtime friend described Capote, and she is right.
I cling to the edge of the table to keep it from turning completely.
Then he orders a double Russian vodka with no ice and a tall orange juice on the side.
Oh well, that makes me feel better.
If hes going to drink like that, Ill be okay.
Truman answers the questions put by Pearls diners.
He punctuates his softly drawled, easily imitated, and widely recognized vocal mannerism with bursts of irrepressible laughter.
And some amazed and genuine outrage.
He begins most of his sentences with a drawn-out W-e-e-e-l-l-l…
WHY DID HE DO IT?
WHY GO QUITE SO FAR?
Why did I do it?
I have lived a life of observation.
Ive been working on this book for years, collecting.
Anybody who mixes with a certain kind of writer ought to realize theyre in danger.
I dont feel I betrayed anybody.
This is a mere nothing, a drop in the bucket.
To think what I could have done in that chapter.
My whole point was to prove gossip can be literature.
Ive been seriously writing this for three and a half years.
I told everybody what I was doing.
I discussed it on TV.
Why has it come as such a great big surprise?
IS THERE REALLY MORE COMING, OR IS THIS ALL?
THEY SAY YOU CANT FINISH THE BOOK, asked the fashion arbiter.
This thing was only a chapter.
My God, what will happen when Unspoiled Monsters comes out?
[Dont you like that title?]
Ive never before heard it suggested that this wasnt part of a whole book.
La Cote Basque 1965 is certainly no short story.
Of course its a book!
Lord, I have a lot to say, baby!
I havent even begun to say it, though the book is 80 percent written.
IS IT TRUE YOU ARE DYING OF CANCER?
asked the art dealer.
Irving Mansfield likes to go around telling everybody Im dying of cancer, but Im well now.
Oh, that reminds me of a story.
When Jackie Susann died, theTimescalled me for a quote.
I was reminded of a judge who once ruled against Father Divine in some property dispute.
asked the producers wife.
I have never in my life done anything just for money.
Ive never had any reason to.
Why would I need money?
My God, I made over $3 million fromIn Cold Bloodand I havent spent it.
I sure havent made any money out of La Cote Basque 1965.
You know you dont make money from magazines.
As for my personal life, I dont care what anyone says or writes about me personally.
I have been a public exhibit all my life.
So let them go ahead and make me a monster.
I did it with everybody.
I didnt slow down until I was 19, and then I became very circumspect.
But everybody knows where everybody else is sexually.
There are no secrets, and thats why I dont understand the shocked response to La Cote Basque 1965.
What is all this business?
Are these people living in some other medieval century?
Id never sue anyone for anything, but Ive been lied about my whole life.
Im just surprised they dont hire a hit man.
We stop to order.
Truman has steak sliced thin as prosciutto, special mayonnaise, fettuccine Alfredo, and Brie.
He is emphatic that he wont be driven out of New York or sell his U.N. Plaza apartment.
(No, no.
thats not so.)
Nor has he bought a house in Topanga Canyon.
asked the WWD biggie.
I didnt mean anything vengeful, not even remotely.
Ive always done good things.
Would I actually sit down and write about something like that as a joke, as revenge?
Truman sighs: Well, it is true nobody likes what you write about them.
Even those I was sympathetic to inIn Cold Blooddidnt like themselves in print.
Loyalty wasnt the question, but on the other hand, I dont care.
If thats the mentality tant pis…
I havent lost a single friend Id want to keep in any event.
These people saying these things werent friends of mine to begin with.
The most vicious thing about all this isthatstory!
Its absolutely untrue thatEsquireshowed her the copy.
The manuscript was kept in a bank vault.
The new portion, Unspoiled Monsters, Ive never shown to anybody.
This book wanders in all directions.
She isnt even mentioned.
How do these things get started?
The book is really about Kate McCloud.
And nobody but me knows who she is, and nobody is going to know.
asked the play producer.
Well, in the first place, I dont think all these people will.
I maintain the people who are really mad are the ones left out.
Jean vanden Heuvel said, I hope it isnt true Im not going to be in by name.
La Cote Basque was delicious and I hereby propose myself for another section.
But if someone like Proust were here now and an American, hed be writing about this world.
People say the language is filthy.
I think thats the way people talk and think now exactly.
I think its beautifully written.
People dont understand how their own minds work.
Theres a fantastic ingratitude in America toward its artists.
No other country treats its creative people like we do.
Here they wait for you to fail.
If people think Im just a bitch, then I surely am 100 percent misunderstood.
I consider myself a fine artist.
This place has been in the same uproar as New York.
I say that maybe people in Hollywood are afraid theyll be next.
Oh, theyll get theirs!
I have never compromised that.
This book, this whole thing, has been the ultimate of my art.
You have to be true to your work.
Ive always said theres no such thing as writing down.
Writers always do the best they can.
We go out into the sunshine.
We walk toward the Beverly Wilshire while I think only in food cliches.
Truman carries his current overweight bulge before him like some defrocked Santa Claus.
He gives several autographs en route.
At the hotel we fall into the El Padrino bar and Truman asks for a telephone.
Disturbed by reports of Diana Vreelands displeasure, he dials her direct.
He calls her darling, angel, precious one, and tells her twice that he loves her.
Burbank, Stage 15: I am watching Truman act.
He stands on a step ladder readingMurder by Deathlines in a singularly hideous dining-room set.
Peter Sellers, Elsa Lanchester, and Timmy Coco play the scene with him.
As far as one can see, Capote makes no effort to act but simply plays himself.
Its going to be a good movie.
I probably wont act again.
How am I as an actor?
Truman is suddenly struck by an idea.
My agent Mr. Irving Lazar has given several parties of late and didnt invite me.
So maybe youre right.
Maybe I am a social outcast.
Tell you what call him up and ask about it!
Im reluctant, but Truman pays no attention to me.
He gets Lazars phone number, he dials, and hands me the telephone.
I give my message to the secretary, who says Swifty will call back.
When I hang up, Truman is exasperated.
No, thats not what I want you to say.
He re-coaches me in my lines.
Before Lazar can return the call, Truman is called to the set.
Lazar says, grimly, I wouldnt have any comment about that.
Floundering, I say, You wouldnt have any comment?
I stumble, Okay, well, Ill tell Mr. Capote what you said.
I didnt tell you to tell Mr. Capote anything.
Lazar screams: I dont want you to tell Mr. Capote I said anything.
Dammit, I knew I shouldnt have taken this call!
He roars over having discomfited the agent of Richard M. Nixon.
Two weeks later he calls New York to ask what people are saying now.
I sense that he is anxious.
No, she has gone on a trip to the South Pacific with the Irving Lazars.
Where does all this leave our hero?
Well, I wont retire to my cork-lined room yet, says Truman.
Im just going to a Palm Springs spa to take off 20 pounds before a college lecture tour.
Then Ill drop the other shoe.
I remind him that nobody can really judge a literary work for 50 years.
This wont even be dated in 50 years!
says Truman with a bulldog tenacity.
Picasso then said, But it will!
He says, You know.
Im beginning to think whats happening now is better than the book!
Thank you for subscribing and supporting our journalism.