Conversations with Capote by Lawrence Grobel
Grobel, Lawrence. Conversations with Capote. First Edition. 1985. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition. Book is signed "Lawrence Grobel" on the title page. Foreword by James Michener.
In his introduction, James Michener acknowledges that generally, the “world’s fine books are written by ordinary or even drab human beings.” Like Oscar Wilde or Lord Byron, however, Truman was the exception. He was “indubitably brilliant, indubitably incandescent, indubitably doomed,” which explains why, a century after Truman Capote’s birth, he remains so much a part of the public conversation. There are still mysteries to be uncovered, inconsistencies to be resolved. Decoding them is akin to solving a crossword puzzle, but one in which the grids dissolve into each other. There are few solid lines. This book, a transcript of in-depth interviews Capote gave to Lawrence Grobel, offers tantalizing clues, some of which Capote clarifies the record and others in which he muddles it.
“I can visualize graduate students at Harvard in the year 2060 getting their Ph.D.’s in literature by deciphering who Capote’s more salacious and infamous characters were and then accessing the justice of his comments. The best of these studies, the one that fixes his reputation, will be titled Truman Capote and His Age. Like Toulouse-Lautrec, he will come to represent his period, and he will be treasured for the masterly way he epitomized it.”
--James Michener