furrbear | THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

On August 25, 1984, 59-year old Truman Capote was found dead in the Los Angeles home of his friend Joanne Carson (ex-wife of Johnny Carson). A coroner's report later ruled that his death was caused by liver disease and multiple drug intoxication. Capote was born in New Orleans in 1924. His parents divorced when he was a young child, and he lived for a number of years with Southern relatives before rejoining his mother and stepfather in Connecticut. His early writings in the 1940s (some of which began to explore his developing homosexuality) were in the Southern Gothic tradition, but he became a cultural icon for such novels as "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "In Cold Blood" (which he once oxymoronically described as "a nonfiction novel"). He penned some wonderful metaphorical observations:

"Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor."

"New York is a diamond iceberg floating in river water."

"Great fury, like great whiskey, requires long fermentation."

"Life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act."

"Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs at one go."

"The brain may take advice, but not the heart,
and love, having no geography, knows no boundaries."

He also authored one of history's best comebacks. He was drinking one evening with friends in a Key West bar. At a nearby table sat an inebriated couple. When the woman recognized Capote, she approached him and asked for an autograph. The woman's husband, in a display of drunken jealousy, staggered over to Capote's table, unzipped his trousers, and in Capote's own words, "hauled out his equipment." As the man did this, he bellowed, "Since you're autographing things, why don't you autograph this?" A hush fell over the room, allowing everybody in the bar to hear Capote's soft, high-pitched voice deliver a perfect emasculating reply:

"I don't know if I can autograph it, but perhaps I can initial it."