Apparently No One Told Young Truman Capote Not to Read the Comments
In DepthOne of the cardinal rules of writing is never to read the comments. For every thoughtful critic, there are three more who didn’t read past the headline; for every valid call-out, there are five more calling the writer an “evil, bitter, barren, ugly, POS Liberal hag.” But it appears no one warned young Truman Capote not to engage, as evidenced by a letter he wrote to a reader in 1945 that accused her of failing to understand a short story he published in a magazine. Truly, bb, I feel you. (NOTE TO JEZEBEL COMMENTERS: I tend not to follow this advice and read your posts, & some of you are very lovely even when you are angry with me, so hi! To the mean ones: I’M WATCHING YOU.)
The New York Times published a fun Sunday piece about the letter, which was recently dug up by one Susan Akers while she was going through some of her late mother’s effects. Apparently, Akers’ mother—then a Wellesley College junior named Katherine Warner, had sent then 20-year-old Capote a letter (a modern day comment!) asking him to explain his short story, “Miriam,” which was published in the June 1945 issue of Mademoiselle. “Miriam” won an O. Henry Award the following year, but it seems Warner had some questions about it, prompting Capote to fire off a fairly curmudgeonly response.