Style Maven: Truman Capote.

One of the new, ongoing posts I want to include on sfgirlbybay is Style Maven - a sort of afternoon fix from the witty, bright and stylish folks from this century. We're surrounded by them, and they fascinate us both professionally and personally. We may like their films, books, interior or fashion designs, but we also like to glimpse a little bit of what's going on behind the public persona.

One of my favorite writers, and more colorful characters of the 1950's, 60's and '70's, is Truman Capote. Perhaps you might ask, what is this to do with design? But this, after all, is the man who brought us Breakfast at Tiffany's! Capote's first page of the first draft of Breakfast at Tiffany's begins: "I am always drawn back to places where I have lived, the houses and their neighborhoods." Capote lived in many homes and neighborhoods, including New Orleans, Sag Harbor, Switzerland and his primary residence at the United Nations Plaza in New York City. Capote also brought us his amazing 'nonfiction novel' In Cold Blood, as well as the 'party of the century' - his infamous Black and White Ball, and is known to have said "All literature is gossip", and his novels represent that well. He hung out with the likes of the fashionable Babe Paley and longtime friend Slim Keith until the publication of Esquire magazine's La Cote Basque 1968, the 1975 tell-all, gossipy book excerpt that led to his alienation from these society women whose friendship, inspiration, influence and affection was his lifeblood.



To discover more about the eccentric Mr. Capote, one of the most amazing American writers of our time, and 1960's social icon, you might like to read George Plimpton's Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career. You can find a complete listing of Capote's novels here. A man who adored attention and loved talking about other people's private lives, Truman Capote would absolutely love that we are still talking about him today.