Escrits
About the bookBreakfast at Tiffany's is Truman Capote's best-loved work of fiction and arguably one of the finest American novellas. Set in Manhattan's Upper East Side, during the final years of World War II, it documents the story of a young writer's fascination with, and affection for, his charming and troubled neighbour, the unorthodox Holly Golightly. The simple, linear narrative of the story provided Capote with the perfect vehicle to refine his characteristically minimal, naturalistic prose style, marking the novella as a transition phase between the author's more elaborate earlier writings and the documentary-style realism of his next major work, the non-fiction masterpiece In Cold Blood.
Capote culled inspiration for his new work from gossip, personal experience, and the lives of his eccentric New York friends. The title is drawn from an anecdote popular among Capote's social circle about an ignorant out-of-towner who upon being asked which glamorous New York restaurant he would like to visit, answered, "Well, let's have breakfast at Tiffany's". The author's idea for Holly likely came from several sources. In his personal correspondence, Capote acknowledged that he intended his charismatic and unscrupulous heroine as a composite portrait of a number of Manhattan socialites with whom he enjoyed intimate friendships. Holly's story arc, in which she escapes an impoverished childhood in the rural South to reinvent herself as a New York sophisticate, resembles Capote's mother's life or, as some suggest, can be a projection of the author himself, a vehicle through which Capote explored his own struggles with social convention, depression, and his need for permanence and stability.
The author
Born in New Orleans on September 30, 1924, Capote's early life was marked by instability and poverty. When his parents separated he was left to be raised by relatives in Alabama, where he began what would become a lifelong friendship with Harper Lee, later the author of the renowned novel To Kill A Mockingbird. An unusual and observant child, Truman was determined to become a writer. He taught himself to read at age four and by age eight was "practicing" at writing in daily sessions. The details of the rural South, its oppressive poverty and wise, headstrong characters, impressed on the young Capote's imagination. He later drew on his memories of Alabama for some of his most famous writing.
In 1933 he moved to NY to join his mother and stepfather (from whom he adopted the surname) and began an uneven career as a student in both private and public high schools in New York and Connecticut. While Capote was intelligent and highly focused on writing, he was uninterested in academics, and dropped out of his fourth year of high school when offered a 2-year contract position as a copy boy at the New Yorker. There, he attracted the attention of many of the city's literary and social elite, as much for his flamboyant wardrobe as for his mature, evocative prose. In 1942, Capote published his first short story, Miriam, in the magazine Mademoiselle, which won him the 1946 prestigious O. Henry award for Best First-Published Story. He soon gained a contract with Random House, who advanced him $1500 for his first novel. Capote’s career had started.
Bibliography
Novels and novellas
- Other Voices, Other Rooms, 1948
- Summer Crossing, approx. 1949 (published posthumously in 2005)
- The Grass Harp, 1951
- Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1958
- In Cold Blood, 1965 (nonfiction)
- Answered Prayers: The Unfinished Novel, 1987
- Miriam, 1945
- A Tree of Night and Other Stories, 1949
- A Christmas Memory, 1956
- The Thanksgiving Visitor, 1968
- The Dogs Bark, 1973
- Mojave, 1975
- La Cote Basque, 1965, 1975
- Unspoiled Monsters, 1976
- Kate McCloud, 1976
- Music for Chameleons, 1980
- One Christmas, 1983
Plays, musicals and screenplays- The Grass Harp, 1951
- Beat the Devil, 1953
- House of Flowers, 1954
- The Innocents, 1960
- The Muses Are Heard, 1956
- The Duke in His Domain, 1957
- Directed by Blake Edwards
- Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly
- George Peppard as Paul "Fred" Varjak
- Patricia Neal as Mrs. Failenson/Emily Eustace (2E)
- Buddy Ebsen as Doc
- Martin Balsam as O.J. Berman
- José Luis de Villalonga as José da Silva Pereira
- Dorothy Whitney as Mag Wildwood
- Orangey as Cat (trained by Frank Inn)
- Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yunioshi
- Alan Reed as Sally Tomato
t his support for Arsenal, which made it to UK an US screens in two different films and led him to write articles and music reviews for a number of newspapers and magazines.
