Capote's Women

July 12, 2021
Biographer Leamer (The Kennedy Women) showcases his knack for telling a rattling good tale in this vivid look at Truman Capote’s failed attempt to write “the greatest novel of the age.” The characters of his unrealized novel, Answered Prayers, were inspired by a circle of fabulously wealthy New York women into which Capote had ingratiated himself, each of whom is brought to life in Leamer’s vibrant prose. Among Capote’s coterie of amusing “swans” was his “guru,” Barbara Paley, who taught him how “to get easy entrance into the homes of the anointed”; Slim Hayward, the timid wife of one of Hollywood’s leading producers; Gloria Guinness, whose singular goal was to “sit atop the swirling social world”; and Lee Radziwill, the aggrieved younger sister of Jackie Kennedy. Leamer’s breathless storytelling vividly details how Capote cultivated the trust of these women to “give Answered Prayers a veracity and insider perspective unlike any other modern novel about the rich.” While he failed to actually write the novel, in 1975 Esquire published an excerpt of it that shared his flock’s secrets without their permission. The women, enraged that Capote had “betrayed them in a display of appallingly bad manners,” cut off all ties to him, a move that signaled the beginning of the end of his career. This juicy story delivers. Agent: David Halpern, The Robbins Office.

August 15, 2021
Truman Capote's last hurrah and the society women who inspired it. Prolific journalist Leamer turns his celebrity gossip lens on literary gadfly Capote, specifically the beautiful "swans" in his orbit. The author focuses on Capote's famously unfinished novel Answered Prayers, "a daring literary feat, an expos� of upper-class society that blended the fictional flourishes of Breakfast at Tiffany's with the closely observed narrative nonfiction of In Cold Blood." Capote wanted to populate the text with glamorous and elegant women and set off to ingratiate himself with them as fodder for the book. Leamer provides society-page profiles of each, describing their lives and relationships with Capote and delivering numerous anecdotes and much name-dropping. Even when he was young, Capote loved being around women. He found them more self-aware and observant, more in tune with his own sensibilities, and he loved to gaze upon their beauty. One of his first attractions was Babe, the "epitome of class" and wife of a "serial betrayer," TV mogul William S. Paley. They had a friendship that lasted for years. At one of Diana Vreeland's dinner parties, Capote met Nancy "Slim" Haywood, director Howard Hawks' second wife. Slim admired Capote's "extraordinary mind; he was one of the three or four brightest people I've ever known in my life." Pamela Churchill, a friend of Babe's, led a notorious life, and with her "swan-like woman's true beauty," Capote saw her as a perfect candidate for his book. No other woman was more amusing than the wealthy, mysterious, and complex fashion maven Gloria Guinness. Lucy "C.Z." Guest, a Boston Brahmin, remained a friend even after the debacle that occurred when Capote published advance excerpts from Answered Prayers. Capote was also able to draw Italian princess Marella Agnelli "into his emotional lair." Leamer's last swan is Lee Radziwill, Jackie Kennedy's sister, with whom Capote had a "special kinship." Engagingly gossipy, Leamer provides extensive behind-the-scenes peaks into Capote's tangled social life.

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November 5, 2021

Perhaps biographer Leamer (The Kennedy Women: The Saga of an American Family) has found the missing aspect of Truman Capote's last work--that being Capote himself. Leamer's work begins as an effort to examine the subjects and substance of Capote's famed, unfinished novel, Answered Prayers, but it's ultimately an examination of Capote's obsessions. Capote's "swans" were women of unbelievable ability and self-understanding whose wealth, taste, and scandals fed Capote's imagination. These women included Barbara "Babe" Paley, Gloria Guinness, Marella Agnelli, Slim Keith, Pamela Harriman, C. Z. Guest, and Lee Radziwill. Central to their beauty was their performance, Leamer writes, and the women themselves were "the ultimate piece of performance art," an art shared by Capote as one of the first openly gay men to dominate the headlines. Juxtaposing Capote's life against those of the women who fascinated him and exploring the novelist's capacity for friendship and betrayal, Leamer's prose is as tantalizing as the lives he studies. This juicy and engrossing narrative recaps the swans' and Capote's transgressions within the historical context of gender, politics, and economics. VERDICT A must-read for fans of Capote. Leamer's carefully curated blend of gossip and citation is sure to also engross anyone interested in midcentury New York society.--Asa Drake, Marion County P.L., FL

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