Best-Kept Boy in the World (23 page)

42. Ibid.

43. Isherwood,
My Guru and His Disciple
, p.
194.

44. Vidal,
Palimpsest
, p. 176.

45. Plimpton,
Truman Capote
, p. 89.

46. Vidal,
Palimpsest
, p. 179.

47. Ibid., pp. 179, 180.

48. Ibid., p. 180.

49. Plimpton, p. 89.

50. Bucknell, p. 402.

51. Vidal,
Palimpsest
, p. 179.

52. Ibid., p. 180.

53. Bucknell, p. 402.

54. Bucknell,
Christopher Isherwood: Lost
Years
, p. 142.

55. Ibid., p. 142.

56. Isherwood, , p. 142.

57. Ibid., p. 142.

58. Isherwood,
Down There on a Visit
, pp.
305, 306.

59. Plimpton, p. 88.

60. Bucknell, p. 402.

61. Plimpton, p. 89.

62. Stanton,
Views from a Window
, p. 92.

63. Ibid., p. 93.

64. Wishart,
High Diver
, p. 60.

65. Vidal,
The Judgment of Paris
, p. 568.

66. Ibid.

67. Ibid., p. 569.

68. Ibid., p. 568.

69. Ibid., p. 569.

70. Ibid., p. 570.

71. Ibid.

72. Ibid., p. 571.

73. Ibid.

74. Ibid., p. 572.

75. Ibid.

76. Ibid., p. 598.

77. Ibid., p. 600.

78. Vidal,
Palimpsest
, p. 100.

79. Stanton, pp. 57-58.

80. Vidal,
A Thirsty Evil
, p. 97.

81. Ibid., p. 101.

82. Ibid., p. 100.

83. Ibid., p. 101.

84. Ibid.

85. Ibid., p. 102.

86. Ibid., p. 103.

87. Ibid., p. 104.

88. Ibid., pp. 104-105.

89. Ibid., p. 108.

90. Ibid.

91. Ibid., p. 105.

92. Wishart, p. 54.

93. Vidal,
Palimpsest
, p. 180.

94. Vidal,
A Thirsty Evil
, p. 111.

95. Ibid., p. 112.

96. Vidal,
Palimpsest
, p. 155.

97. Vidal,
A Thirsty Evil
, p. 113.

98. Ibid., p. 114.

99. Ibid.

100. Ibid., p. 115.

101. Ibid., p. 114.

102. Ibid., p. 116.

103. Ibid., p. 117.

104. Ibid., p. 118.

105. Ibid., p. 120.

106. Ibid.

107. Vidal,
The Last Empire
, p. 308

CHAPTER SEVEN

1. Clarke,
   Capote
   , pp. 164-165.
   

2. Ibid., p. 166. The reconciliation between Watson
and Hansen didn’t last too long. On July 15, 1949, Capote would
write to a friend: “do you remember Waldemar Hansen? I saw him in
Paris and he is a wreck: the poor thing has been ousted by Peter
Watson, and it is one of the most fabulous stories you’ve ever
heard.” In a letter a month later he filled in the details. “Peter
Watson ran off with someone else, a brickhead from California who
had been Waldemar’s lover before he met Peter and who W had
rejected in favor of Mr. Watson! How’s that for irony?” Clarke,
Too Brief a Treat
, p. 94, p. 98.

3. Ibid., p. 174.

4. Capote,
Answered Prayers
, p. 26.

5. Capote,
Portraits and Observations
, p.
301.

6. Clarke,
Capote
, p. 176.

7. Vidal,
Palimpsest
, p. 180.

8. Capote,
Answered Prayers
, p. 32.

9. Clarke,
Capote
, p. 173.

10. Capote,
Answered Prayers
, p. 29.

11. Ibid., pp. 32-33.

12. Clarke,
Capote
, 174.

13. Capote,
Answered Prayers
, p. 36.

14. Capote,
Answered Prayers
, p. 85.

15. Clarke,
Capote
, p. 174.

16. Capote,
Answered Prayers
, p. 35.

17. Ibid., p. 66. This story must have haunted
Capote. He wrote a longer version of it as a chapter for
Answered Prayers
, “Mojave,” but then took it out and made it
the fourth chapter of
Music for Chameleons
. Capote,
Three
by Truman Capote
, p. 208 et seq.

18. Rorem,
A Ned Rorem Reader
, p. 275.

19. Capote,
Portraits and Observations
, p.
301.

20. Clarke,
Too Brief a Treat
, p. 258.

21. Bucknell,
Christopher Isherwood: Lost
Years
, p. 119.

22. Berg,
Conversations with Christopher
Isherwood
, p. 17.

23. Clarke,
Capote
, p. 314.

24. Grobel,
Conversations with Capote
, p.
199.

25. Clarke,
Capote
, p. 491.

26. Ibid., p. 317.

27. Plimpton,
Truman Capote
, p. 197.

28. Grobel, p. 112.

29. Clarke, p. 318.

30. Ibid., p. 323.

31. Ibid., p. 330.

32. Clarke,
Too Brief a Treat
, p. 287.

33. Werth,
The Scarlet Professor
, p. 253.

34. Clarke,
Too Brief a Treat
, p. 296.

35. Grobel, p. 79.

36. Ibid., p. 111.

37. Clarke,
Too Brief a Treat
, p. 335.

38. Clarke,
Capote
, p. 325.

39. Clarke,
Too Brief a Treat
, p. 340.

40. Ibid., p. 413.

41. Ibid., p. 421.

42. Plimpton, p. 249.

43. Ibid., p. 248.

44. Ibid., p. 269.

45. Grobel, p. 117.

46. Clarke,
Capote
, p. 320.

47. Ibid., pp. 399-400.

48. Ibid., p. 398.

49. Plimpton, p. 176.

50. Clarke,
Capote
, p. 405.

51. Ibid., p. 311.

52. Grobel, p. 222.

53. Capote,
Three by Truman Capote
, p.
193.

54. Grobel, p. 231.

55. Clarke,
Too Brief a Treat
, p. 448.

56. Clarke,
Capote
, p. 155.

57. Ibid., p. 485.

58. Capote,
Answered Prayers
, p. 5.

59. Ibid., p. 35.

60. Ibid., p. 22.

61. Ibid., p. 21.

62. Ibid., p. 23.

63. Ibid., p. 24.

64. Ibid., p. 25.

65. Ibid., p. 26.

66. Ibid.

67. Ibid., pp. 26-27.

68. Ibid., p. 26.

69. Ibid., p. 27.

70. Ibid., pp. 29-30.

71. Ibid., p. 30.

72. Ibid., p. 36.

73. Ibid., p. 29.

74. Ibid., pp. 33-34.

75. Ibid., p. 34.

76. Ibid., p. 36.

77. Ibid., p. 67.

78. Ibid., p. 96.

79. Plimpton, p. 446.

80. Capote,
Three by Truman Capote
, p.
192.

81. Ibid., p. 193.

82. Clarke,
Capote
, p. 491.

83. Plimpton, pp. 446-447.

84. Ibid., pp 449-451. Gore Vidal had his own
cynical take on it: “Mr. Capote never wrote
Answered
Prayers
. It is the Madonna of the Future all over again. But as
this is America, if you publicize a nonexistent work enough, it
becomes positively palpable. It would be nice if he were to get the
Nobel on the strength of
Answered Prayers
, which he, indeed,
never wrote. There were a few jagged pieces of what might have been
a gossip-novel published in
Esquire
. The rest is silence;
and litigation and ...noise on TV.” Grobel, p. 201. In 1978, Truman
had remarked to his friend of three decades, Donald Windham, “Well,
even if I never finished Answered Prayers, it’s better known than
most books that are published.” Windham thought to himself that
Truman “had created another category: the non-written novel.”
Windham,
Lost Friendships
, p. 154.

85. Capote,
Answered Prayers
, p. 100.

CHAPTER EIGHT

1. Wishart,
   High Diver
   , p. 59.
   

2. Ibid., p. 60.
   

3. Ford,
   Water from a Bucket
   , p. 4.
   

4. Shelden,
   Friends of Promise
   , pp. 203-204.
   

5. Lancaster,
   Brian Howard
   , pp. 289-290.
   

6. Ibid., p. 280.
   

7. Shelden, p. 208.
   

8. Ibid., pp. 204-205.
   

9. Bucknell,
   Christopher Isherwood: Lost Years
   ,
   p. 300; Clarke,
   Capote: A Biography
   , p. 174.
   

10. Bucknell,
    Christopher Isherwood: Lost Years
    ,
    pp. 172-3.
    

11. Richard Wall, “The World’s Most Expensive Male
    Prostitute.”
    Folio Weekly
    , (Jacksonville, Florida), June 12,
    2012.
    

12. Leddick,
    Intimate Companions
    , p. 207.
    

13. Huntington Library, Letter of Glenway Wescott to
    Christopher Isherwood, December 25, 1948, Christopher Isherwood
    Papers.
    

14. Phelps and Rosco,
    Continual Lessons
    , p.
    211.
    

15. Op cit supra
    note 12.
    

16. Clarke, 174.
    

17. Clarke, 173.
    

18. Shelden, p. 208.
    

19. Ellman,
    Oscar Wilde
    , p. 74.
    

20. Wishart, p. 58.
    

21. Ibid., p. 60.
    

22. The account of Elliott Magren’s death in Gore
    Vidal’s “Pages from An Abandoned Journal” follows precisely Denny’s
    death: Elliott was found “face down in the bathroom, dead. When the
    autopsy was performed, it was discovered that Elliott had had a
    malformed heart, an extremely rare case, and he might have died as
    suddenly at any moment in his life ... He was buried Christmas Day
    in the Protestant cemetery close to Shelley, in good company to the
    end.” Vidal,
    A Thirsty Evil
    , p. 121.
    

23. Wishart, p. 60.
    

24. Huntington Library, Letter of Glenway Wescott to
    Christopher Isherwood, early March 1949.
    

25. Bucknell,
    Christopher Isherwood Diaries
    , p.
    409.
    

26. Ibid., p. 460.
    

27. Plimpton, (editor),
    Writers of Work
    ,
    4
    ^th
    Series, p. 222. Ibid, p. 550.
    

28. Bucknell,
    Christopher Isherwood Diaries
    , p.
    834.
    

29. Wishart, p. 54.
    

30. Ibid., p. 54.
    

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