A Capote Memory

Truman Capote, one of the leading American authors of the second half of the twentieth century, gave us such literary gems as Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood. He is also famous for his short fiction, published in the New Yorker and other magazines, and his collections of stories.

1956 copy in Rare Book Room.

1956 copy in Rare Book Room.

One of those short pieces, A Christmas Memory, is told by an adult narrator about a Christmas when he was seven. He is living with an elderly cousin, and other people they are “not too much aware of.” It is late November and the woman declares it fruitcake weather. So she and the boy, Buddy, must go and gather pecans and buy moonshine whiskey. The woman makes these cakes every year and distributes them to friends she has met and those she hasn’t, like Franklin Roosevelt.

The story takes place in a town like Monroeville, Alabama, where Capote grew up with three elderly female cousins. And, like Buddy, he attended a military school up north. How much of this story actually happened has been fodder for many literary essays.

You can read this bittersweet story at Boatwright. But if you would like to read the presentation copy signed by the author, drop by the Galvin Rare Book Room.capote2

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