Truman Capote, Signed by George Plimpton
[Signed by George Plimpton] Plimpton, George. Truman Capote in which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances, and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career. First Edition. 1997. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition. Book is inscribed on the titled page in Plimpton’s elegant script, “For Sonny & Maury, George Plimpton.”
Charles McAtee, a Kansan law enforcement officer who came to know Truman, after the In Cold Blood murders (and is one of the interviewees in this book), mused “sometimes fact is fiction, fiction is fact, truth is stranger than fiction.” It’s an apt summation of the life and career of literary superstar Truman Capote, who twisted fact and fiction into an elaborate knot nearly impossible to untangle. This excellent book, an oral history, lets the reader decide, presenting various perspectives in Capote’s event-filled, very social life. It is a given that Capote is fascinating, but just as compelling are the interviewees, who in discussing relationship with Capote, reveal as much about themselves as they do about him. Participants included Lee Radziwill, Gore Vidal, Diana Vreeland, and many others.
“There are only two American writers who are recognized by the man on the street in this century: Truman and Ernest Hemingway.”
-- John Knowles