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CELEBRATED author Truman Capote didn’t mind ruining all his relationships with a gossipy exposé, but one falling out hurt him deeply, a friend has revealed.
The In Cold Blood author blasted an entourage of New York City socialites known as his “Swans.”
True crime author Capote sailed through the 1960s with considerable fame and fortune after the success of his novels In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
No stranger to a party, the cosmopolitan man became a favorite of New York City’s most elite women for his quick tongue and energizing presence.
Wealthy wives like fashion icon CZ Guest, model Slim Keith, and public relations executive Lee Radziwill were among the tastemakers who took a liking to Capote.
The author, who stood out for being openly gay, began to call the women his Swans and eventually was always seen clinging to one of their well-dressed figures.
Though his favorite of the six was undoubtedly Babe Paley.
“He loved Babe,” said Capote’s friend and biographer Gerald Clarke in an exclusive conversation with The U.S. Sun.
Paley was the wife of William Paley, who was the co-founder and chief executive of CBS.
Whip-smart and highly fashionable, Paley was a groundbreaking magazine editor at Vogue and Time before she married the exec.
Capote loved attending parties with his Swans, but Paley was the only woman whom he truly had a close relationship with, and the two even went on exotic vacations together like traveling to Russia, Clarke said.
In the book Capote’s Women, author Laurence Leamer wrote, “She was often called the most beautiful woman in the world, and Truman just liked looking at her.”
As the two got closer, Paley started to open up about the struggles hidden behind her glamorous lifestyle.
Her husband William was unfaithful, and though she tried to hide it, Paley was deeply hurt by his two-timing.
Paley’s suffering was one of many stressors that disillusioned Capote to life in New York City’s elite circle and started to inspire his next book.
LA COTE BASQUE
In 1975, Capote published a chapter titled La Cote Basque 1965 in Esquire magazine which detailed the lives of his Swans under thinly veiled pseudonyms.
The story takes place at a French restaurant from which the chapter got its name, and follows a narrator, based on Capote, as he hears all the gossip about its high-profile guests.
In the story, Capote airs out rumors of love affairs, characterizes well-to-do women as shallow gadflies and even suggests that widow Ann Woodward murdered her husband.
In 1955, Woodward admitted to killing her financial heir husband William but claimed she shot him because she thought he was an intruder.
Woodward died by suicide before Capote’s story was made public and it’s believed she took her life after hearing wind of what the chapter would be about.
Capote also detailed Paley’s husband’s infidelity as a sort of payback for hurting his wife, Clarke said.
After the chapter was released, Capote was shocked by the intense public outrage.
According to Clarke, “It became a cult to hate Truman.”
The biographer said that those vying to be a part of the social elite made sure to dramatically cut out Capote in order to get in the Swans’ good graces.
Meanwhile, Capote’s friends immediately cut him out of their lives, and none of his relationships fully recovered.
Even Paley, who was one of Capote’s closest friends, sided with her husband and cut him out of her life.
A few years after the story was published, Paley died from cancer, and Capote mourned not getting to spend her final moments together.
The shift in public opinion sparked a devastating mental decline in Capote, who had already struggled with alcoholism.
After publishing the chapter, the writer started to stay inside his Long Island mansion, where he would drink and do drugs while his lifelong partner Jack Dunphy avoided him.
Capote died at 59 from liver complications that stemmed from his drug use on August 25, 1984.
He’s remembered both for his fiery personality and for authoring classics like Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Other Voices, Other Rooms.
Capote’s relationship with his Swans is being featured in the latest Ryan Murphy series titled Feud: Capote vs. The Swans.
