Together in one festive, keepsake volume, here are the three holiday stories that Truman Capote regarded as among his greatest works of short fiction.
"A Christmas Memory" and "The Thanksgiving Visitor" were inspired by Capote's early years with a family of distant relatives in rural Alabama. These two childhood tales pay loving tribute to an eccentric old-maid cousin, Miss Sook Faulk, who became Capote's best friend. In "A Christmas Memory," Miss Sook, Buddy (the narrator), and their dog, Queenie, celebrate the yuletide in a hilariously tipsy state. In the poignant reminiscence "One Christmas," six-year-old Buddy journeys to New Orleans for a reunion with his estranged father that shatters many illusions. And in "The Thanksgiving Visitor," Miss Sook invites an unexpected guest to the holiday meal: the school bully, Odd Henderson, whom Buddy calls "the meanest human creature in my experience."
Distinguished by Capote's delicate interplay of childhood sensibility and recollective vision, these three classics are gems that celebrate the unique bonds of friends and family.
Editorial Review(s)
"[A] gem of a holiday story." --School Library Journal
About the Author
Truman Capote was born in New Orleans on September 30, 1924. He rose to international prominence in 1948 with the publication of his debut novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms. His other works of fiction include Breakfast at Tiffany’s, A Tree of Night, The Grass Harp, and Summer Crossing, the author’s long-lost first novel, which was rediscovered in 2004 and published by Random House in 2005. His nonfiction novel In Cold Blood is widely considered one of the greatest books of the twentieth century. Capote twice won the O. Henry Memorial Short Story Prize and was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He died on August 25, 1984, shortly before his sixtieth birthday.
