Source Notes
Much of this book is based on interviews, chiefly with Truman Capote himself, but also with several hundred others who either knew him or provided information on him or on other subjects I discuss. In the notes below I have indicated my sources for key facts and quotations. I have cited all the important quotations from Truman that I obtained from published stories and interviews. The reader can assume that almost all other quotations from Truman and from his companion, Jack Dunphy, come from my interviews with them. Because I interviewed them so frequently, over so long a period of time, I have not attempted to date each quotation. With only a few exceptions, all other interviews are dated. For reasons that are obvious in the text, a very few people requested anonymity, which I granted.
The book is also based on written material, most of it unpublished: Truman’s books and articles; his letters, which are scattered over two continents; the letters of his friends, particularly his first lover, Newton Arvin; and the memoirs and diaries of those who knew him. Truman often claimed that he kept extensive diaries of his own. If so—and I doubt that he did—I know of only two. One is in the Library of Congress; the other he gave to me.
The two main repositories of Capote material are the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress. Columbia University’s Random House collection has the letters Truman exchanged with his editors, and the Smith College Library has many of the letters Newton Arvin wrote to him. Truman also gave me some important material, including the aforementioned diary and his letters from Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, the two killers he wrote about in In Cold Blood. I was also able to purchase an extraordinarily useful collection of several hundred of Truman’s family letters, which were of immense help in providing background and documenting dates.
In quoting from letters, I have, in a very few places, dropped irrelevant passages without noting the omission with an ellipsis, overuse of which I believe often slows down a narrative. For the most part, Truman and his correspondents were excellent spellers, and I have silently corrected minor misspellings, unless, as in a childhood letter, they make a point. When I have given the exact date of a letter within the text, I have not felt it necessary to repeat the citation in the source notes.
CHAPTER 1
page 3 “‘She like to have knocked me dead…’”: Arch Persons to GC, September 9, 1976.
page 4 “Her widowed mother had died…”: Arch Persons (September 9, 1976), Mary Ida Carter (September 7, 1976) and Seabon Faulk (March 8, 1978) to GC.
page 5 “‘Get out and don’t ever darken…’”: Mary Ida Carter to GC, September 7, 1976.
page 5 “He was obviously not the man he had led…”: Seabon Faulk to GC, March 8, 1978.
page 6 “‘People in Monroeville thought that Arch…’”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 2
page 8 “At the beginning, anyway, Lillie Mae put aside…”: Mary Ida Carter (September 7, 1976), Seabon Faulk (March 8, 1978) and John Knox Persons (September 9, 1978) to GC.
page 8 “‘If you could be sold, Arch…’”: Captain Verne Streckfus to GC, April 19, 1979.
page 10 “‘Money is the sixth sense, without which…’”: Arch Persons to John Knox Persons, July 30, 1933.
CHAPTER 3
page 11 “‘She thought that she had been hooked…’”: Seabon Faulk to GC, March 8, 1978.
page 11 “‘She’d take a notion to a fellow…’”: Arch Persons to GC, September 9, 1976.
page 11 “In the seven years they were man and wife…”: Arch Persons to Mabel Purcell (his mother), January 5, 1933.
page 12 “‘Invariably,’ he complained in one letter…”: John Knox Persons to Sam Persons, July 12, 1931.
page 12 “The first on the list may have been…”: Arch Persons (September 9, 1976) and Joe Capote (May 7, 1977) to GC.
page 14 “In the winter of 1929 she even took him…”: Nancy H. Carwell, assistant to the registrar, Western Kentucky University, in a letter to GC, July 18, 1978.
CHAPTER 4
page 15 “‘She was the strongest woman…’”: Seabon Faulk to GC, March 8, 1978.
page 16 “‘Oh, Jennie that’s so sinful!’”: Mary Ida Carter to GC, September 7, 1976.
page 18 “In 1930, when Truman went there to live…”: For my description on Monroeville in the thirties, I relied on the centennial edition (1966) of the Monroe Journal and Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, as well as information derived from interviews.
CHAPTER 5
page 21 “All that summer of 1930 he swam…”: Arch Persons to John Knox Persons, July 24, 1930.
page 22 “‘He wore blue linen shorts that…’”: Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, page 13.
page 23 “‘I fear if there is such a thing…’”: Callie Faulk to Mabel Purcell, September 28, 1931.
page 23 “‘We give him every pleasure…’”: Callie Faulk to Mabel Purcell, August 3, 1932.
page 24 “One night at eleven o’clock, long after…”: Mabel Purcell to John Knox Persons, June 22, 1931.
CHAPTER 6
page 27 “‘Seems to me she is always studying something…’”: Sam Persons to John Knox Persons, January 15, 1931.
page 27 “‘Arch is headed for immediate serious trouble’”: John Knox Persons to Lillie Mae Faulk, March 11, 1931.
page 27 “‘Please excuse this paper…’”: Lillie Mae Faulk to John Knox Persons, March, 1931
page 28 “‘When he gets in trouble…’”: John Knox Persons to Lillie Mae Faulk, March 17, 1931.
page 29 “Captivated by her vivacity and beauty…”: Joe Capote to GC, May 7, 1977.
page 29 “‘I never saw a man who was any cleaner…’”: Seabon Faulk to GC, March 8, 1978.
page 30 “‘His mental state concerning her…’”: John Knox Persons to Sam Persons, July 2, 1931.
page 30 “‘The enclosed wire came last night…’”: Sam Persons to John Knox Persons, July 6, 1931.
page 31 “‘I am the deserted boy…’”: Arch Persons to Mabel Purcell, July 18, 1931.
page 32 “Lillie Mae, he reported, had phoned to tell him ‘that she…’”: Arch Persons to John Knox Persons, August 27, 1931.
CHAPTER 7
page 34 “This time John put up bail, wryly remarking…”: John Knox Persons to Mabel Purcell, August 14, 1931.
page 34 “‘I am as innocent of wrongdoing…’”: Arch Persons to Mabel Purcell, August 30, 1932.
page 34 “‘Today is Truman’s birthday.…’”: Arch Persons to John Knox Persons, September 30, 1932.
page 35 “The car was new, and Lillie Mae was ‘dressed to kill…’”: Sam Persons to John Knox Persons, October 25, 1932.
page 35 “…Alabama’s Angola State Prison—the toughest in the world…”: Arch Persons to Mabel Purcell, November 29, 1932.
page 35 “…that was enough to break even Sam’s heart…”: Sam Persons to Arch Persons, December 22, 1932.
page 35 “…to save Truman from that ‘she-devil’”: Arch Persons to John Knox Persons, August 6, 1933.
page 36 “‘I have never appreciated any home as much…’”: Certified copy of testimony of “J. Archie Persons” in the Circuit Court of Monroe County, Alabama, August 24, 1933.
page 36 “‘I think it would be a calamity for the child…’”: F. W. Hare, Judge of the Circuit Court of Monroe County, August 28, 1933.
page 37 “‘I didn’t know a man could be robbed…’”: Arch Persons to John Knox Persons, September 2, 1933.
page 37 “Yet even Arch’s mother…”: Mabel Purcell to John Knox Persons, September 10, 1933.
page 37 “‘We have the goods on her…’”: Arch Persons to John Knox Persons, April 29, 1934.
page 38 “‘Can you imagine anything so terrible…’”: Arch Persons to John Knox Persons, July 24, 1934.
page 38 “‘As you know my name was changed…’”: TC to Arch Persons, undated, probably September, 1936.
CHAPTER 8
page 40 “‘They were madly in love…’�
�: Lyn White to GC, October 16, 1975.
page 41 “‘I will not have another child…’”: Marjorie Capote (Joe Capote’s widow) to GC, January 7, 1983.
page 41 “Something went wrong on the operating table…”: Joe Capote to GC, May 7, 1977.
page 42 “She often accused him of lying…”: Ibid.
page 42 “According to his Aunt Tiny, Nina’s sisters…”: Marie (Tiny) Rudisill to GC, June 27, 1982.
pages 42–3 “‘His voice today is identical to…’”: C. Bruner-Smith to GC, November 19, 1982.
page 44 “‘I always felt sorry for Truman…’”: Ibid.
page 45 “‘How could she have been so insane…’”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 9
page 47 “‘It was fascinating to watch him…’”: Howard Weber, Jr., to GC, June 3, 1980.
page 50 “His ninth-grade English teacher…”: John Lasher to GC, January 19, 1983.
page 50 “‘It was a rather lengthy manuscript…’”: C. Bruner-Smith to GC, November 19, 1982.
page 51 “‘Those who knew him accepted him…’”: Crawford Hart, Jr., to GC, January 20, 1983.
page 51 “‘Truman was vividly…’”: Thomas Flanagan to GC.
page 52 “‘His attendance was very irregular…’”: Andrew Bella to GC, July 19, 1983.
page 53 “He came to her attention as aggressively…”: Catherine Wood to GC, December 19, 1975.
CHAPTER 10
page 55 “‘He had a great, and immense, capacity…’”: Phoebe Pierce Vreeland to GC, April 20, 1976.
page 55 “‘Truman brought happiness into…’”: Marion Jaeger O’Niel to GC, April 2, 1983.
page 56 “All that day he walked the halls…”: Marion Jaeger O’Niel and Lucia Jaeger Behling to GC, April 2, 1983.
page 61 “‘a shot here, a shot there,’ as he later said”: Joe Capote to GC, May 7, 1977.
page 61 “Occasionally he would spend a Saturday…”: Carl Jaeger to GC, April 2, 1983.
page 62 “‘You’re a pansy!’ Nina would…”: Phoebe Pierce Vreeland to GC, April 20, 1976.
page 63 “‘Well, my boy’s a fairy…’”: Ibid.
page 63 “‘How can you let your son…’”: Meghan Robbins Collins to GC, January 31, 1983.
page 64 “‘As much as Truman could be in love…’”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 11
page 67 “‘Goodbye, girls, I’m going back to the city…’”: Lucia Jaeger Behling to GC, April 2, 1983.
page 68 “‘In New York,’ said Phoebe…”: Phoebe Pierce Vreeland to GC, April 20, 1976.
page 68 “‘this island, floating in river water like a diamond iceberg…’”: TC. The Dogs Bark, page 30.
page 68 “‘We thought we were being terrific…’”: Carol Marcus Matthau to GC, May 31, 1977.
page 69 “…in a poem, ‘Sand for the Hour Glass,’…”: Franklin School magazine, The Red and Blue, Winter, 1943, pages 23–24.
page 70 “‘The New Yorker is a worse madhouse…’”: White, Letters of E. B. White, page 250.
page 71 “‘like a small boy, almost a child.’”: William Shawn to GC, May 31, 1976.
page 71 “‘You’re going to lose your money…’”: Ebba Jonnson to GC, January 24, 1977.
page 72 “‘She was a wicked, wicked woman…’”: Andy Logan to GC, June 7, 1976.
page 72 “‘It’s in his stars, or his destiny…’”: Selma Robinson, “The Legend of ‘Little T,’” P.M., Sunday Magazine, March 14, 1948, page 8.
page 73 “‘baying the moon of despair…’”: Thurber, The Years with Ross, page 176.
page 73 “‘The copyboy’s job was to clean the place…’”: Albert Hubbell to GC, August 12, 1983.
page 74 “‘He used to stand behind my desk…’”: Barbara Lawrence to GC, August, 1976.
page 75 “‘There was a tendency—New Yorker snobbery…’”: E. J. Kahn, Jr., to GC, September 7, 1983.
page 75 “‘Even though we thought that he could probably do it…’”: William Shawn to GC, May 31, 1976.
page 75 “‘It is a scandal that we didn’t publish any of Truman’s short stories…’”: Brendan Gill to GC, August 8, 1983.
page 76 “‘It just so happened,’ Truman said, ‘that I was recovering from the flu…’”: Elliot Norton, “Fable Drawn from Life,” New York Times, March 23, 1952, Arts section, page 3.
page 77 “‘Truman came home crying…’”: Joseph Capote to GC, May 7, 1977.
CHAPTER 12
page 79 “‘It was early winter when I arrived there…’”: TC, The Dogs Bark, page 6.
page 79 “‘He seemed happy-happy…’”: Mary Ida Carter to GC, September 7, 1976.
page 79 “‘More and more,’ he wrote, ‘Summer Crossing seemed to me thin…’”: Ibid., page 6.
page 80 “‘noisy as a steel mill…’”: Ibid., page 8.
page 81 “‘He couldn’t paint worth a damn…’”: Patsy Streckfus Clark to GC, November, 1977.
page 81 “‘the freest time of my life…’”: Andrea Chambers, “Going Home,” People, January 26, 1981, page 56.
page 82 “‘There were extraordinary people…’”: Richard Avedon to GC, August 7, 1976.
page 83 “‘That’s fine, little boy…’”: Andrew Lyndon to GC, April 23, 1977.
page 85 “‘I saw “Miriam” in Mademoiselle…’”: Mary Louise Aswell to GC, December 17, 1975.
page 86 “‘Harper’s and Mademoiselle turned into temples…’”: Alfred Chester, “American Gothic: A Powerful, Enigmatic and Troubling Account of Murder in the Nth Degree,” New York Herald Tribune Book Week, January 16, 1966, page 2.
page 86 “‘The most remarkable new talent of the year was…’”: Brickell, O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1946, page xiv.
CHAPTER 13
page 88 “‘George had pipit monstrosities in his head…’”: Leo Lerman to GC, May 5, 1976.
page 88 “‘George had the nastiest tongue…’”: Pearl Kazin Bell to GC, August 10, 1976.
page 88 “…his friend W. H. Auden called him…”: Irving Drutman to GC, February 8, 1978.
pages 88–9 “‘Knowing George was a career in itself…’”: Phoebe Pierce Vreeland to GC, April 20, 1976.
page 89 “‘George brought out the worst in Truman…’”: Pearl Kazin Bell to GC, August 10, 1976.
page 90 “‘The people George knew were a legion…’”: Howard Moss to GC, December 18, 1976.
page 90 “he even declared that Truman’s ‘slender talent’…”: Letter from Paul Bigelow to Jordan Massee, March 25, 1947.
page 90 “A decade later…”: Drutman, Good Company, pages 113–14.
page 90 “‘It was spectacular in a truly Truman way…’”: Leo Lerman to GC, May 5, 1976.
page 91 “‘Nina sometimes became rather violent…’”: Ibid.
page 91 “‘He knew without a doubt the precise moment…’”: Pearl Kazin Bell, “The Jester,” Bottegbe Oscure, Volume 9, 1952, page 282.
page 92 “‘You knew exactly what you were going to get there…’”: Mary Louise Aswell to GC, May 7, 1977.
page 92 “‘Little T can be absolutely adorable…’”: Selma Robinson, op. cit., pages 6–8.
page 93 “‘Carmel and Diana Vreeland were both fascinated…’”: Mary Louise Aswell to GC, May 7, 1977.
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