Source: VanityFair.com
Ah, some much talent, and such a miserable ending. From 1945 until the early 1970s, Capote had roaring success as a writer. By 1978 he was a mumbling drunk making an ass of himself on the Stanley Siegel Show, and he dropped dead in 1984. What happened?
The answer is pretty simple—Capote was an alcoholic and substance abuser. He destroyed his brain and body. But in 1976 he did something that helped fuel his crash—he published “La Côte Basque 1965.” This Esquire piece was a thinly veiled expose of many of his high society friends. It was a horrible betrayal, and Kashner shows Capote was weirdly surprised that the folks he mocked turned against him. Low on friends and with a bit too much free time on is hands, Capote got loaded a lot, failed to complete writing assignments, and never published Answered Prayers, a book that was to be his magnum opus. He died in Los Angeles of liver disease at age 59.
Read more at http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/12/truman-capote-answered-prayers There you also will find “Yachts and Things,” a “Never-Before-Published Draft Chapter” of Answered Prayers. (“La Côte Basque 1965” was a chapter from Answered Prayers.)
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