Truman Capote Reads from Breakfast at Tiffany’s in NYC (1963)

We’re bring­ing you some great authors this week. First it was Hem­ing­way, then Orwell, and now Capote.

In 1958, Tru­man Capote put his stamp on the Amer­i­can lit­er­ary scene when he pub­lished his short nov­el, Break­fast at Tiffany’s, in the pages of Esquire mag­a­zine. Authors and crit­ics were quick to rec­og­nize what Capote had accom­plished here. The always opin­ion­at­ed Nor­man Mail­er would say that Capote “is the most per­fect writer of my gen­er­a­tion, he writes the best sen­tences word for word, rhythm upon rhythm. I would not have changed two words in Break­fast at Tiffany’s which will become a small clas­sic.” About that, Mail­er was exact­ly right. Break­fast at Tiffany’s is now a clas­sic book – not to men­tion a clas­sic film too (watch the trail­er with the icon­ic Audrey Hep­burn here). And now let’s rewind the audio­tape and take you back to 1963, to the great 92nd Street Y in New York city, where Tru­man Capote reads from his lit­tle clas­sic in his own dis­tinc­tive voice. This audio clip runs about 17 min­utes. Have a lis­ten.

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