Truman Capote, brilliant writer and venomous, detested gossip

“I am homosexual. I am a genius.” This is how Truman Capote (New Orleans, 1924-Los Angeles, 1984) introduced himself in 'Music for Chameleons', his formidable collection of mature stories. The brilliant author of 'In Cold Blood' and 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' was indeed a genius who married literature and journalism like no one else. But he was also an arrogant egotist, a venomous and arrogant gossip, owner of a viperous and very sharp tongue. Short, with a shrill voice and a tendency to be overweight, an irredeemable gossip, rich and famous, he was Hollywood's most vitriolic jester, where he made enemies and dabbled as an actor, and in the most select New York salons whose confidante ladies he betrayed by airing their secrets.

Born on September 30th a hundred years ago, Truman Streckfus Persons was an unwanted, lonely, and helpless child. When she divorced, Lillie Mae Faulk, the future writer's mother, sent her only son to Monroeville (Alabama). At four years old little Truman was left in the care of his elderly aunts longing for the improbable return of his mother. He felt very miserable and to prove it he drank a bottle of perfume from his alcoholic and unstable mother.

Extremely introverted, gifted, and hypersensitive, the child took refuge in his contradictory and complex inner world. His early literary vocation was born from his helplessness and emotional wounds long before he adopted the surname of his mother's second husband, the Cuban José García Capote, which would become universal. No wonder he described his vocation as a "little demon" to which he surrendered when his mother locked him in a hotel room to go partying.

A skillful constructor of his own legend, he claimed that he learned to read and write by himself. And the truth is that he wrote stories at eight years old and before turning ten he crafted some tales that have withstood the test of time with dignity. Affected teenager with a squeaky voice, very aware of the burden of being homosexual in the deep south - "faggot" he would say - shielded his universe as a defense against the relentless hostility of a wildly macho environment.

His school were the stories that appeared between 1935 and 1943 in the high school magazine and others set in New York, where Capote settled determined to succeed as a writer. He already showed rare genius and the will of style that he displayed in 'Other Voices, Other Rooms' (1948), his first 'official' novel written at 23 years old and LGBT 'avant la lettre'.

In 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' and in the great report that is 'In Cold Blood', Capote already knows that "art and truth are not necessarily compatible." Had he not spent his childhood in Alabama during the Great Depression, he would never have completed 'In Cold Blood', the novel-report about the murder of the Clutter family in Kansas that catapulted him to fame in January 1966, inaugurating a mixed genre with facts and fiction.

In Alabama he forged a decisive and beneficial friendship with Harper Lee, author of 'To Kill a Mockingbird', with whom he would reconnect in New York in the fifties. Lee was inspired by Capote for the character of Dill, the unruly and eccentric boy who introduces himself at the beginning of the novel saying: "I am small but I am older." Capote, for his part, recreates his best friend and neighbor from Monroeville in Idabel's character from 'Other Voices, Other Rooms'.

Capote needed six years of research to recreate and narrate the brutal murder of the Clutters. He would not have gotten to the bottom of the case or obtained first-hand testimonies without Harper Lee's help, who contributed social skills that Capote lacked. The egotistical and proud writer never acknowledged or thanked Lee's contribution and they distanced themselves. Written during a fruitful stay on Costa Brava that Leila Guerriero recreates in 'The Difficulty of Ghosts' (Anagrama), he did not want to publish the novel until the murderers were hanged to ensure its success.

Richard Brooks would bring to cinema in 1967 the inaugural novel of new journalism that sold more than three hundred thousand copies of its first edition and spent thirty-seven weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.'A Tree of Night' (1949), 'The Grass Harp' (1951) and 'The Muses Are Heard' (1956) preceded 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' (1958), an agile novel with subtle poetic tone where Capote polished his style.

Brought to cinema in 1961 as 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' directed by Blake Edwards, it starred Audrey Hepburn in the memorable role of chic gold-digger Holly Golightly. By then Capote already had pop star status like his hated Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe, and literary giants like Gay Talese and Hunter S. Thompson, other pillars of new journalism and gonzo journalism.

But he could not complete his most ambitious novel, 'Answered Prayers' - title taken from Saint Teresa of Jesus -, published posthumously in 1987. It was an unsparing social portrait of high society that had welcomed him and entrusted him with their secrets. It was also a portrait of Capote's witty youth: provocative, seductive, bisexual, amoral. The jet set did not forgive him for it and Capote fell into disgrace.

He died at 59 years old at Joanna Carson's mansion in Los Angeles intoxicated with a cocktail of drugs suffering from cirrhosis and phlebitis. He wished to be reincarnated as a vulture. “A vulture doesn't have to worry about its appearance or ability to please; it doesn't have to put on airs. Anyway it won't please anyone; it's ugly, undesirable” wrote someone who had swan aspirations.

Distilling malice he built his harsh character: A scathing, salaciously hurtful person who was admired or detested. Even so reading him remains a pleasure.