Non-Negotiable Reading On All Things Truman Capote & His Swans

It was months back, upon the teasing of FX's new miniseries, FEUD: Capote Vs. The Swans,  that I realized Truman Capote's New York is my Roman Empire.

It feels silly not to have noticed it sooner, considering my apartment is filled with seemingly redundant and yet distinctly unique books delving deep into the wild ride of this seductively strange man.

Truman charmed and fascinated New York's sophisticated and powerful, a Mississippi native turned accomplished author turned professional party ornament moving about in the world's most impressive society circuit. His wit, humor, compassion and cruelty is ultimately what earned him his coterie of Swans, women like Babe Paley, Slim Keith, Gloria Guinness, CZ Guest, Marella Agnelli, Lee Radziwill, who gathered round him, gossiping for laughs and entrusting him with their most privileged secrets, as close friends do.

Following In Cold Blood, a revolutionary work that not only captivated the nation but created an entirely new genre of the non-fiction novel, Truman struggled to match his success. For years he spoke of his magnum opus - a Proustian level literary triumph titled Answered Prayers - and for years, everyone waited. Deadlines went unmet, his publisher's advance was returned, and then, on a November day in 1975, an excerpt of the text called 'La Côte Basque 1965' was published in Esquire.

Just like that, Truman's mean resentment of the world he'd beaten down the door of, desperate to live in, lay flat on the page for all to see - his story a thinly veiled telling of his flock's personal, private predicaments, from adulterous husbands to accusations of murder.

Everyone takes, and the transactional nature of friendship is unavoidable. Where Truman was used by his Swans and their husbands as a confidant, a companion, a clown, he too found their worth, enjoying the perks of their summer homes and boats and long, carefree, martini-filled lunches. There was a balance, with each parties taking their share, until the bubble of the women's world was burst and published for all to see, setting off a steep decline in all things - friendship, health, finances - that Truman never clawed his way out of.

Before sitting down to see the scandal play out on the small screen, and to watch Chloë Sevigny do her best CZ Guest, which I must say is just the most brilliant casting move, get your backstory straight with some truly page-turning reads...

For pouring over the glamorous, twisting plot of Truman and his Swans, you'll no question have to pick up this trifecta:
- Capote's Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era
- Swan Song
- The Swans Of Fifth Avenue: A Novel

To go full on investigative researcher, you'll have to consult the primary source and spark that started the scandalous spiral, which though unfinished, still gives you quite the impression of the novel's trouble-stirring aim:
- Answered Prayers

For a broader understanding of this high society moment in time, and the overall flurry of flattery Truman enjoyed at his height, you cannot overlook this canonical text:
- Party of the Century: The Fabulous Story of Truman Capote and His Black and White Ball

And lastly, for a full picture, you'd be remiss not to dig into one of the more unexplored pieces of collateral damage in Truman's cutting novel, the beyond fascinating story of the showgirl turned socialite Ann Woodward. She married her wealthy (very much married at the time) boyfriend's son as a way to keep close and financially kept, shot him (the husband, not her older boyfriend, his father) dead in the middle of the night after supposedly confusing him for a home invader, and then many years later, upon the publication of Truman's excerpt, which took aim at her eyebrow raising story, committed suicide:
- Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the Century

Once you've completed all your requisite reading, might I recommend a viewing of The Capote Tapes to put some real faces to the names? Not only is it an interesting visual scrapbook of the time, it adds a whole other fascinating layer to the story, interviewing Kate Harrington, the daughter of Truman's it's-complicated boyfriend, whom he actually adopted in her late teens...

[Photos via Pari Dukovic for FX]