Truman Capote

Holly Golightly knows that nothing bad can ever happen to you at Tiffany's. In this seductive, wistful masterpiece, Capote created a woman whose name has entered the American idiom and whose style is a part of the literary landscape—her poignancy, wit, and naïveté continue to charm.This volume also includes three of Capote's best-known stories, “House of Flowers,” “A Diamond Guitar,” and “A Christmas Memory,” which the Saturday Review called “one of the most moving stories in our language.” It is a tale of two innocents—a small boy and the old woman who is his best friend—whose sweetness contains a hard, sharp kernel of truth.

Tracing the career of a writer of uncertain parentage and omnivorous erotic tastes, Answered Prayers careens from a louche bar in Tangiers to a banquette at La Côte Basque, from literary salons to high-priced whorehouses. It takes in calculating beauties and sadistic husbands along with such real-life supporting characters as Colette, the Duchess of Windsor, Montgomery Clift, and Tallulah Bankhead. Above all, this malevolently funny book displays Capote at his wittiest and most observant.

The tale of a fun-loving, amoral playgirl in New York City is accompanied by House of Flowers, A Diamond Guitar, and A Christmas Memory.

Published when Truman Capote was only twenty-three years old, Other Voices, Other Rooms is a literary touchstone of the mid-twentieth century. In this semiautobiographical coming-of-age novel, thirteen-year-old Joel Knox, after losing his mother, is sent from New Orleans to live with the father who abandoned him at birth. But when Joel arrives at Skully’s Landing, the decaying mansion in rural Alabama, his father is nowhere to be found. Instead, Joel meets his morose stepmother, Amy, eccentric cousin Randolph, and a defiant little girl named Idabel, who soon offers Joel the love and approval he seeks.Fueled by a world-weariness that belied Capote’s tender age, this novel tempers its themes of waylaid hopes and lost innocence with an appreciation for small pleasures and the colorful language of its time and place.This new edition, featuring an enlightening Introduction by John Berendt, offers readers a fresh look at Capote’s emerging brilliance as a writer of protean power and effortless grace.From the Hardcover edition.

A lost treasure only recently found, Truman Capote's Summer Crossing is a precocious, confident first novel from one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. Set in New York just after World War II, the story follows a young carefree socialite, Grady McNeil, whose parents leave her alone in their Fifth Avenue penthouse for the summer. Left to her own devices, Grady turns up the heat on the secret affair she's been having with a Brooklyn-born Jewish war veteran who works as a parking lot attendant. As the season passes, the romance turns more serious and morally ambiguous, and Grady must eventually make a series of decisions that will forever affect her life and the lives of everyone around her.

Together in one volume, here are a pair of literary touchstones from Truman Capote’s extraordinary early career: the transcendently popular novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Other Voices, Other Rooms, the debut novel he published as a twenty-three-year-old prodigy.   Of all his characters, Capote once said, Holly Golightly was his favorite. The hillbilly-turned-Manhattanite at the center of Breakfast at Tiffany’s shares not only the author’s philosophy of freedom but also his fears and anxieties. For Holly, the cure is to jump into a taxi and head for Tiffany’s; nothing bad could happen, she believes, amid “that lovely smell of silver and alligator wallets.”  Other Voices, Other Rooms begins as thirteen-year-old Joel Knox, after losing his mother, is sent from New Orleans to rural Alabama to live with his estranged father—who is nowhere to be found. Instead, Joel meets his eccentric family and finds a kindred spirit in a defiant little girl. Despite its themes of waylaid hopes and lost innocence, this semiautobiographical coming-of-age novel revels in small pleasures and the colorful language of its time and place.

Set on the outskirts of a small Southern town, The Grass Harp tells the story of three endearing misfits—an orphaned boy and two whimsical old ladies—who one day take up residence in a tree house. As they pass sweet yet hazardous hours in a china tree, The Grass Harp manages to convey all the pleasures and responsibilities of freedom. But most of all it teaches us about the sacredness of love, “that love is a chain of love, as nature is a chain of life.”This volume also includes Capote’s A Tree of Night and Other Stories, which the Washington Post called “unobtrusively beautiful . . . a superlative book.”

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence.

At the centre of Music for Chameleons is Handcarved Coffins, a ‘nonfiction novel’ based on the brutal crimes of a real-life murderer. Taking place in a small Midwestern town in America, it offers chilling insights into the mind of a killer and the obsession of the man bringing him to justice. Also in this volume are six short stories and seven ‘conversational portraits’ including a touching one of Marilyn Monroe, the ‘beautiful child’ and a hilarious one of a dope-smoking cleaning lady doing her rounds in New York.

“The mill owner's wife persists: 'A dollar, my foot! Fifty cents. That's my last offer. Goodness, woman, you can get another one.' In answer, my friend gently reflects: 'I doubt it. There's never two of anything.” 'A Christmas Memory' is a short story written by Truman Capote, first published in 1956. This much sought-after autobiographical recollection of Capote's rural Alabama boyhood has become a modern-day classic. Seven-year-old Buddy knows that the Christmas season has arrived when his cousin, Miss Sook Falk exclaims: "It's fruitcake weather!" Thus begins an unforgettable portrait of an odd, but enduring, friendship between two innocent souls—one young and one old—and the memories they share of beloved holiday rituals. Truman Capote (1924–1984) was an American writer whose non-fiction, stories, novels and plays are recognized literary classics. His first novel, 'Other Voices, Other Rooms' (1948) stayed on the bestseller list for nine weeks. In the 1950s and 1960s, Capote remained prolific producing both fiction and non-fiction, such as the novella 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' (1958). His masterpiece, 'In Cold Blood' (1965), became a worldwide success, after which he published rarely and suffered from alcohol addiction. He died in 1984 at age 59. At least 20 films and TV dramas have been produced from Capote novels, stories and screenplays.

Mic dejun la Tiffany este povestea unui scriitor care își amintește că a cunoscut-o în urmă cu cincisprezece ani, pe când locuia într-un vechi apartament din New York, pe Holly Golightly, o fată excentrică și misteri­oasă, care locuia în aceeași clădire. În scurt timp, scri­itorul aspirant de atunci și fata aceasta ciudată, pe a cărei carte de vizită era scris „călătoare”, devin prie­teni apropiați, iar opiniile și modul de viață neconven­țional, precum și lucrurile neobișnuite pe care le află despre trecutul și aventurile prin care a trecut vecina sa ajung să-l fascineze tot mai mult. Firul narativ simplu, liniar al microromanului îi permite lui Capote să-și rafineze stilul caracteristic minimalist, într-o formă vie și proaspătă, care i-a adus un succes masiv la cri­tică și public. „Truman Capote, omulețul acesta plin de curaj, este cel mai împlinit scriitor al unei generații din care fac și eu parte. Frazele lui sunt perfecte până la detaliu, ritmul povestilor lui este impenetrabil. N-aș schimba o virgulă în Mic dejun la Tiffany.” (Norman Mailer) „Cartea lui Truman Capote poate fi citită ca o variațiune a poveștii Cenușăresei: destinul unei tinere ale cărei aspirații o ajută să treacă printr-o adolescență tulbure, dar care nu-i aduc și fericire până la adânci bătrâneți. Este, cu alte cuvinte, o imagine a formării, care sugerează oricărei cititoare – și, de ce nu, oricărui cititor – că orice schimbare de sine, orice scop, oricât de greu de atins, e la îndemâna oricui, chiar când totul pare imposibil.” (The Guardian) „Apariția în anii ‘60 a unei cărți ca Mic dejun la Tiffany a schimbat fața literaturii mondiale și a dat posibilitatea culturii pop americane să-și reevalueze posibilitățile.” (USA Today) Cartea a cunoscut o ecranizare celebră în 1961, cu Audrey Hepburn în rolul principal.

Resoconto giornalistico e racconto si fondono per svelare i retroscena di un fatto di cronaca accaduto nel Midwest degli Stati Uniti nel 1959: lo sterminio brutale di un'intera famiglia da parte di due psicopatici.

"Il était midi au coeur du désert de Mojave. Assis sur une valise de paille, Perry jouait de l'harmonica. Dick était debout au bord d'une grande route noire, la Route 66, les yeux fixés sur le vide immaculé comme si l'intensité de son regard pouvait forcer des automobilistes à se montrer. Il en passait très peu, et nul d'entre eux ne s'arrêtait pour les auto-stoppeurs... Ils attendaient un voyageur solitaire dans une voiture convenable et avec de l'argent dans son porte-billets : un étranger à voler, étrangler et abandonner dans le désert."

"El pueblo de Holcomb está en las elevadas llanuras trigueras del oeste de Kansas, una zona solitaria que otros habitantes de Kansas llaman 'allá'..." A partir de esta localización precisa, Truman Capote captura al lector en una historia apasionante, e inaugura -como él mismo proclamó- un género. La historia es la de los cuatro integrantes de la familia Clutter, salvajemente asesinados en su casa, una tragedia que enlaza con el linchamiento de Dick Hickcock y Perry Smith, cinco años, cuatro meses y dicienueve días mas tarde. El género: la non fiction novel, una genial combinación de los elementos clave de los oficios de escritor y periodista.

The early fiction of one of the nation’s most celebrated writers, Truman Capote, as he takes his first bold steps into the canon of American literatureRecently rediscovered in the archives of the New York Public Library, these short stories provide an unparalleled look at Truman Capote writing in his teens and early twenties, before he penned such classics as Other Voices, Other Rooms, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and In Cold Blood. This collection of more than a dozen pieces showcases the young Capote developing the unique voice and sensibility that would make him one of the twentieth century’s most original writers. Spare yet heartfelt, these stories summon our compassion and feeling at every turn. Capote was always drawn to outsiders—women, children, African Americans, the poor—because he felt like one himself from a very early age. Here we see Capote’s powers of empathy developing as he depicts his characters struggling at the margins of their known worlds. A boy experiences the violence of adulthood when he pursues an escaped convict into the woods. Petty jealousies lead to a life-altering event for a popular girl at Miss Burke’s Academy for Young Ladies. In a time of extraordinary loss, a woman fights to save the life of a child who has her lover’s eyes. In these stories we see early signs of Capote’s genius for creating unforgettable characters built of complexity and yearning. Young women experience the joys and pains of new love. Urbane sophisticates are worn down by cynicism. Children and adults alike seek understanding in a treacherous world. There are tales of crime and violence; of racism and injustice; of poverty and despair. And there are tales of generosity and tenderness; compassion and connection; wit and wonder. Above all there is the developing voice of a writer born in the Deep South who will use and eventually break from that tradition to become a literary figure like no other. With a foreword by the celebrated New Yorker critic Hilton Als, this volume of early stories is essential for understanding how a boy from Monroeville, Alabama, became a legend in American literature.Praise for The Early Stories of Truman Capote“Succeeds at conveying the writer’s youthful rawness . . . These stories capture a moment when Capote was hungry to capture the rural South, the big city, and the subtle emotions that so many around him were determined to keep unspoken.”—USA Today “A window on the young writer’s emerging voice and creativity . . . Capote’s ability to conjure a time, place and mood with just a few sentences is remarkable.”—Associated Press

Set in a small Southern town in the 1930s, this classic work tells the story of three endearing misfits--an orphaned boy and two whimsical old ladies--who one day take up residence in a tree house. Now a major motion picture from Fine Line Features, starring Sissy Spacek, Walter Matthau, Piper Laurie, and Nell Carter.

Um dos grandes romances da literatura americana do século XX. O americano Truman Capote foi um escritor versátil, mas a sua grande obra foi o romance não-ficção "A Sangue Frio", que conta a história da morte da família Clutter, em Holcomb, Kansas, e dos autores da chacina. Capote decidiu escrever sobre o assunto ao ler no jornal a notícia do assassinato da família, em 1959. Quase seis anos depois, em 1965, a história foi publicada em quatro partes na revista The New Yorker. Além de narrar o extermínio do fazendeiro Herbert Clutter, de sua esposa Bonnie e dos filhos Nancy e Kenyon -uma típica família americana dos anos 50, pacata e integrada na comunidade-, o livro reconstitui a trajectória dos assassinos. Perry Smith e Dick Hikcock planearam o crime acreditando que se apropriariam de uma fortuna, mas não encontraram praticamente nada. Perry era um sonhador. Cresceu de uma forma conturbada e violenta, e achava que a vida lhe tinha dado golpes injustos. Dick, considerado o cérebro da dupla, queria apenas arrebatar o dinheiro e desaparecer. Presos e condenados, ambos morreram na forca em 1965. A intensa relação que Capote estabeleceu com as suas fontes foi determinante para o êxito da obra. Além de passar mais de um ano na região de Holcomb, investigando e conversando com moradores, aproximou-se dos criminosos e conquistou a sua confiança. Traçou um perfil humano e eloquente dos dois «meninos», como costumava chamar-lhes.

Holly Golightly, la protagonista di questo estroso romanzo breve, è una cover-girl di New York, attrice cinematografica mancata, generosa di sé con tutti, consolatrice di carcerati, eterna bambina chiassosa e scanzonata. È un personaggio incantevole, dotato di una sorprendente grazia poetica. Intorno a lei ruotano tipi bizzarri come Sally Tomato, paterno gangster ospite del penitenziario di Sing Sing, O.J. Berman, il potente agente dei produttori di Hollywood, il "vecchio ragazzo" Rusty Trawler, Joe Bell, proprietario di bar e timido innamorato...

Golden Globe-winning actor Michael C. Hall (Dexter, Six Feet Under) performs Truman Capote's provocative, naturalistic masterstroke about a young writer's charmed fascination with his unorthodox neighbor, the "American geisha" Holly Golightly. Holly--a World War II-era society girl in her late teens--survives via socialization, attending parties and restaurants with men from the wealthy upper class who also provide her with money and expensive gifts. Over the course of the novella, the seemingly shallow Holly slowly opens up to the curious protagonist, who eventually gets tossed away as her deepening character emerges.Breakfast at Tiffany's, Truman Capote's most beloved work of fiction, introduced an independent and complex character who challenged audiences, revived Audrey Hepburn's flagging career in the 1961 film version, and whose name and style has remained in the national idiom since publication. Hall uses his diligent attention to character to bring our unnamed narrator's emotional vulnerability to the forefront of this American classic.

Now Brando looked at people with assurance, and with what can only be called a pitying expression, as though he dwelt in spheres of enlightenment where they, to his regret, did not. This mesmerizing profile of an insecure, vulnerable young Marlon Brando, brooding in a Kyoto hotel during a break from filming, is a peerless piece of journalism. Penguin fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.

Controversial and compelling, In Cold Blood reconstructs the murder in 1959 of a Kansas farmer, his wife and both their children. Truman Capote's comprehensive study of the killings and subsequent investigation explores the circumstances surrounding this terrible crime and the effect it had on those involved. At the centre of his study are the amoral young killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickcock, who, vividly drawn by Capote, are shown to be reprehensible yet entirely and frighteningly human. The book that made Capote's name, In Cold Blood is a seminal work of modern prose, a remarkable synthesis of journalistic skill and powerfully evocative narrative. An alternate cover of this ISBN can be found here.

Holly Golightly knows that nothing bad can ever happen to you at Tiffany's. In this seductive, wistful masterpiece, Capote created a woman whose name has entered the American idiom and whose style is a part of the literary landscape—her poignancy, wit, and naïveté continue to charm. It's New York in the 1940s, where the martinis flow from cocktail hour till breakfast at Tiffany's... And nice girls don't, except, of course, Holly Golightly. Pursued by Mafia gangsters and playboy millionaires, Holly is a fragile eyeful of tawny hair and turned-up nose, a heart-breaker, a perplexer, a traveler, a tease. She is irrepressibly 'top banana in the shock department', and one of the shining flowers of American fiction. Also included are three of Capote's best-known stories: • House of Flowers - Ottilie is entranced by a beautiful young man, and leaves her life and friends to live with him and his old grandmother, who seems to hate her. • A Diamond Guitar - Hear the story of the prized possession of a younger prison inmate, a rhinestone-studded guitar. • A Christmas Memory - A poignant tale of two innocents—a small boy and the old woman who is his best friend—whose sweetness contains a hard, sharp kernel of truth.

Companion tales: The Thanksgiving Visitor and A Christmas Memory in one boxed edition.

Contains: Breakfast at Tiffany'sHouse of FlowersA Diamond GuitarA Christmas Memory