Editing Truman Capote (section)

=== "La Côte Basque 1965" ===
"La Côte Basque 1965" was published as a standalone chapter in ''Esquire'' magazine in November 1975. The catty beginning to his still-unfinished novel, ''Answered Prayers'', was the catalyst of Capote's social suicide. Many of Capote's circle of high-society female friends, whom he called his "swans", were featured in the text, some under pseudonyms and others by their real names. The chapter is said to have revealed the dirty secrets of these women,<ref name=Kashner2012>{{cite magazine |author=Sam Kashner |title=Capote's Swan Dive |magazine=Vanity Fair |date=December 2012 |pages=200–214 |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/12/truman-capote-answered-prayers |access-date=October 11, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151012171718/http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/12/truman-capote-answered-prayers |archive-date=October 12, 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref> and aired the "dirty laundry" of New York City's elite. As a result Capote was ostracized from New York society and from many of his former friends.<ref name="Brown-NYT">{{cite news |last1=Brown |first1=Craig |title=How Truman Capote Betrayed His High-Society 'Swans' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/19/books/review/capotes-women-laurence-leamer.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=November 19, 2021 |access-date=September 10, 2022}}</ref>

"La Côte Basque" begins as Jonesy, the main character, said to be based on a mixture of Capote himself and Herbert Clutter,<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Clarke |first1=Gerald |title=Bye Society |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/1988/04/truman-capote-198804 |magazine=[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]] |date=January 3, 2012 |access-date=September 10, 2022}} (Reprinted from April 1988 issue.)</ref> the serial killer victim at the center of ''In Cold Blood'', has a rendezvous with Lady Ina Coolbirth on a New York City street. Described as "an American married to a British chemicals tycoon and a lot of woman in every way",<ref>{{cite book |author=Truman Capote |title=Answered Prayers |publisher=Random House |location=New York, NY |year=1994 |page=139 }}</ref> she is widely rumoured to be based on New York socialite [[Slim Keith]]. Coolbirth invites Jonesy to lunch at [[La Côte Basque]]. A gossipy tale of New York's elite ensues.

The characters of [[Gloria Vanderbilt]] and [[Carol Matthau]] are encountered first, the two women gossiping about [[Princess Margaret]], [[Prince Charles]] and the rest of the [[British royal family]]. An awkward moment occurs when Vanderbilt has a run-in with her first husband and fails to recognize him. It is only at Mrs.&nbsp;Matthau's prompting that Vanderbilt realizes who he is. Both women brush the incident aside and chalk it up to ancient history.

The characters of [[Lee Radziwill]] and [[Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis]] are then encountered when they enter the restaurant together. Sisters, they draw the attention of the room although they speak only to each other. Coolbirth describes Lee as "marvelously made, like a Tanagra figurine" and Jacqueline as "photogenic" yet "unrefined, exaggerated".<ref>{{cite book |author=Truman Capote |title=Answered Prayers |publisher=Random House |location=New York, NY |year=1994 |page=151}}</ref>

The character of Ann Hopkins is then introduced when she surreptitiously walks into the restaurant and sits down with a pastor. Hopkins is likened to [[Ann Woodward]]. Coolbirth relates the story of how Hopkins murdered her husband. When he threatened to divorce her, she began cultivating a rumour that a burglar was harassing their neighbourhood. The official police report says that while she and her husband were sleeping in separate bedrooms, Mrs.&nbsp;Hopkins heard someone enter her bedroom. In her panic, she grabbed her gun and shot the intruder; unbeknownst to her the intruder was in fact her husband, David Hopkins (or [[William Woodward, Jr.]]). Ina Coolbirth suggests however, that Mr.&nbsp;Hopkins was in fact shot in the shower; such is the wealth and power of the Hopkins' family that any charges or whispers of murder simply floated away at the inquest. It is rumoured that Ann Woodward was warned prematurely of the publication and content of Capote's "La Côte Basque" and proceeded to kill herself with cyanide as a result.<ref name=Kashner2012/>

An incident regarding the character of Sidney Dillon (or [[William S. Paley]]) is then discussed between Jonesy and Mrs.&nbsp;Coolbirth. Sidney Dillon is said to have told Ina Coolbirth this story because they have a history as former lovers. One evening while Cleo Dillon ([[Babe Paley]]) was out of the city, in Boston, Sidney Dillon attended an event by himself at which he was seated next to the wife of a prominent New York Governor. The two began to flirt and eventually went home together. While Ina suggests that Sidney Dillon loves his wife, it is his inexhaustible need for acceptance by haute New York society that motivates him to be unfaithful. Sidney Dillon and the woman sleep together, and afterwards Mr.&nbsp;Dillon discovers a very large blood stain on the sheets, which represents her mockery of him. Mr.&nbsp;Dillon then spends the rest of the night and early morning washing the sheet by hand, with scalding water in an attempt to conceal his unfaithfulness from his wife who is due to arrive home the same morning. In the end, Dillon falls asleep on a damp sheet and wakes up to a note from his wife telling him she had arrived while he was sleeping, did not want to wake him, and that she would see him at home.

The aftermath of the publication of "La Côte Basque" is said to have pushed Truman Capote to new levels of drug abuse and alcoholism, mainly because he claimed not to have anticipated the backlash it would cause in his personal life.