Portraits and Observations

“A wonderful volume … Nearly every page [of Portraits and Observations] can be read with real pleasure… . Those who appreciate the music and cadence of a sentence, or relish a well-turned simile, will find much to enjoy and learn from in these crafty, intricately structured essays… . No matter what his subject, Truman Capote’s canny, careful art gives it warm and breathing life… . He remains a writer we should keep reading.”—The Washington Post Book World “Pages and pages of remarkably evocative, careful and well-observed prose that delineates, in a measured and elegant manner, one of the most remarkable American literary lives of the twentieth century… . Every piece is a treasure of effects, and over the whole 500-plus pages and thirty-eight years, the effects hold together and speak back and forth to one another. The result is a visible evolution and a telling portrait of what happened to Truman Capote—not to his life but to his aesthetic, with his life as a frequently fascinating background.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review “Capote’s about due for a revival. [Portraits and Observations] is the sampler to spark it… . This well-made selection of essays, excerpts and interviews memorializes the Capote who was at once more and less than the careerist literary journalist of that era—the bon vivant who fed himself baked potatoes stuffed with caviar; the haunted romantic who declared that the most beautiful word and the most dangerous word in English were one and the same: love… . Capote is largely remembered today as a personality, a celebrity and Tonight Show fixture, but he was a brilliant writer first and always. This anthology gathers many pieces that stand up well against anyone’s work.”—Kirkus Reviews“Remarkably stylish and assured … Capote’s essays … have a style and easy grace of their own.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) “It is easy to believe, with [Portraits and Observations] in hand, that Capote’s true métier was the essay.”—Booklist “[Portraits and Observations] is both a long overdue and welcome addition to the Capote revival… . The volume’s completeness will recommend it to fans as well as anyone seriously interested in mid-twentieth-century American literature.”—Publishers Weekly “Portraits and Observations includes gemlike shorts on Coco Chanel and Willa Cather … as well as a priceless account of an opera company’s tour of Porgy and Bess in the USSR.”—Vogue “Portraits and Observations showcases master stylist Truman Capote’s entire short nonfiction oeuvre, including celebrated pieces as well as obscurities [such as] the newly discovered ‘Remembering Willa Cather.’” —Elle “What a keen and merciless, but sometimes loving, eye [Truman Capote] turned on those around him! And what a treat for his readers.”—The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)

Truman Capote was born September 30, 1924, in New Orleans. After his parents’ divorce, he was sent to live with relatives in Monroeville, Alabama. It was here he would meet his lifelong friend, the author Harper Lee. Capote rose to international prominence in 1948 with the publication of his debut novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms. Among his celebrated works are Breakfast at Tiffany’s, A Tree of Night, The Grass Harp, Summer Crossing, A Christmas Memory, and In Cold Blood, widely considered one of the greatest books of the twentieth century. Twice awarded the O. Henry Short Story Prize, Capote was also the recipient of a National Institute of Arts and Letters Creative Writing Award and an Edgar Award. He died August 25, 1984, shortly before his sixtieth birthday.

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