CAPOTE'S WOMEN

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 exposé 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.