Tiny Terror: Why Truman Capote (Almost) Wrote Answered Prayers

by William Todd Schultz

Truman Capote was one of the most gifted and flamboyant writers of his generation, renowned for such books as Other Voices, Other Rooms, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and his masterpiece, the nonfiction novel In Cold Blood. What has received comparatively little attention, however, is Capote's last, unfinished book, Answered Prayers, a merciless skewering of cafe society and the high-class women Capote called his "swans." When excerpts appeared he was immediately blacklisted, ruined socially, labeled a pariah. Capote recoiled--disgraced, depressed, and all but friendless. In Tiny Terror, a new volume in Oxford's Inner Lives series, William Todd Schultz sheds light on the life and works of Capote and answers the perplexing mystery--why did Capote write a book that would destroy him? Drawing on an arsenal of psychological techniques, Schultz illuminates Capote's early years in the South--a time that Capote himself described as a "snake's nest of No's"--no parents to speak of, no friends but books, no hope, no future. Out of this dark childhood emerged Capote's prominent dual neurotic Capote, anxious, vulnerable, hypersensitive, expecting to be hurt; and Capote the disagreeable destroyer, emotionally bulletproof, nasty, and bent on revenge. Schultz shows how Capote would strike out when he felt hurt or taken for granted, engaging in caustic feuds with Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams, and many other writers. And Schultz reveals how this tendency fed into Answered Prayers, an exceedingly corrosive and thinly disguised roman a clef that trashed his high-society friends. What emerges by the end of this book is a cogent, immensely insightful portrait of an artist on the edge, brilliantly but self-destructively biting the jet-set hands that fed him. Anyone interested in the inner life of one of America's most fascinating literary personalities will find this book a revelation.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

188 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 23, 2011

About the author

William Todd Schultz is a personality psychologist who specializes in profiles of artists. He’s published four books—Tiny Terror on Truman Capote (2011), An Emergency in Slow Motion on Diane Arbus (2011), Torment Saint on Elliott Smith (2013), and The Mind of the Artist (2021)—along with numerous articles and book chapters. He curates and edits the Oxford book series Inner Lives. He’s appeared in Huffington Post, Salon, Slate, The Spectator, Seattle Weekly, and other venues. In 2015, Schultz was awarded the Erikson Prize for Mental Health Media; from 2016-2017 he was a Shearing Fellow at the Black Mountain Institute in Las Vegas; and in summer, 2021, he completed a Yaddo Artist Residency. He lives and teaches in Portland, Oregon.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

William Todd Schultz takes on Truman Capote in a way no one ever could during Capote's lifetime: through psychoanalysis. Of course, since Capote has been dead these 27 years, this endeavor will necessarily run up against some obstacles.

I confess to being a bit dubious about psychobiography; the practice doesn't seem all that different from those armchair and pop psychologists who insist on diagnosing people they've never met, much less spoken to at any length. (Oddly, the diagnosis in those cases almost always seems to be "narcissistic personality disorder." I'm not sure what that means, but it's interesting to note, anyway.)

Nonetheless, if any dead author is a good candidate for psychobiographical treatment, it's Capote. For one thing, Capote never stopped talking about anything, especially himself (and even when he was talking about someone else, he was talking about himself), so a psychobiographer has ample – indeed, voluminous – material. And as anyone knows after they’ve read dozens of Capote interviews conducted over his lifetime, Truman tended to be a bit, shall we say, elastic with the truth. But as any psychoanalyst will tell you, people reveal themselves through their own narratives; the liberties one chooses to take with the truth are simply another avenue by which one can gain understanding. Capote also said in interviews that he declined to undergo therapy or analysis precisely because he worked out his problems through his writing (although in fairness, he’s probably not too different from a lot of writers in that regard).

Schulz’s thesis – stated over-simply, that Capote wrote Answered Prayers so that he could reject his friends before they got around to rejecting him – seems quite plausible in light of Capote’s life and writings, and especially in light of his public antics, which those of us old enough to have seen them remember with a mix of fascination, amusement, and horror. Anyone interested in Capote as a persona and popcult phenomenon, or even just as a writer, might want to give this concise psychobiography a look.

Edit: There is one mistake that pains me greatly and that I hope is corrected in later editions: the Editor of the New Yorker when Capote published In Cold Blood was, famously, William Shawn, not, as Schultz has it, Wallace Shawn. A famous Wallace Shawn does exist, but he didn't edit the New Yorker in the 1950; rather, he's William's son.

[Leo Racicot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creative magnificence is often a cousin to self-destructiveness and to traumas suffered in childhood and here, author Willian Todd Schultz's aim is true in presenting a clear and believable connection between genius and the fractured personalities that lurk behind them. Schultz has invented a science of analysis between these two dynamics (called Psychobiography). His science is
never dry, always as interesting and entertaining as the subjects they explore and in "Tiny Terror", he has unearthed the sad and sadly-missed Truman Capote whose self-hatred, stemming from
a childhood made miserable by parental abandonment, his mother's suicide and his being shuttled
relentlessly between mostly uncaring relatives who didn't know what to make of prissy, diminutive
Truman, defined his entire life and career. In adulthood, Capote countered this by being so in-your-face gay, you couldn't help but be charmed by the shock of him, the sheer balls he displayed,
the "I'm so outrageous, I make Liberace look butch and if you don't like it, you can get on your
knees and lick the genius off my lavender, brocade slippers!" vaunt. This bravado, coupled with a facility for some of the most beautiful prose ever written (including his masterwork, "In Cold Blood") masked a deep and lasting wound, a self-loathing that Capote tried to heal with pills, booze and the deliberate betrayal of his friends and confidantes in "Answered Prayers", losing the battle he waged against himself at the too early age of 59 when the little bear finally managed to chew off his own paw. A invaluable artist too soon gone...
Schultz elevates Psychobiography here to an art form all its own, humanizing and rescuing Capote from the self-caricature the tiny terror himself had created, and making us understand that in the greatest creative souls, there can never be Light unless there is something Dark beside which it can shine. "Tiny Terror" is a must-have for anyone interested in the psychological insights and aspects of what makes creative people tick. Cheers to William Todd Schultz for shining his flashlight on a discipline too long left hidden in boxes in the attic.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you skip the introduction and the last chapter, this book is an entertaining short biography of Truman Capote. Tiny Terror is billed as a "pyschobiographical" book. Truman Capote is an interesting subject for a biography but Schultz's psychological musing about what made Capote tick made my eyes glaze over.

[Taylor Church · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having only read his famous novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s and a couple short stories I was reluctant to read an entire biography of Truman Capote. I like to reward myself with a nice bio piece once I have gone through an artists’ complete oeuvre. It’s just sort of my SOP. But I took exception learning that this was not a comprehensive work, but a psycho-biography concentrating on why he wrote his final unfinished novel that basically blacklisted him from the high society he loved so much. The book did exactly what it was supposed to, it asked questions that will make me return to Capote’s earlier work for answers and biographical symmetry.

Tiny Terror was more academic and psychologically researched than I had anticipated, but it was a good, unique thing. The author talked at length about the very things that shape us all the most, our childhood, our parents, our environment, and the DNA we just happen to enter the world with, along with other predispositions and propensities that make us who we are and who we may become. Much of the analysis is of course opinion and subject to debate, but for the most part the author gives the reader facts and explains when things are not fully knowable or ascertainable.

At this point my duty seems clear. I have to read Capote’s magnum opus In Cold Blood and move forward from there. But in this rare instance I’m glad I threw a biography in the reading list so early. And in accordance with my own reading rules and taste I can still reward myself with the greater and more life-encompassing biography Capote, by Gerald Clarke when I finish the rest of Capote’s work.

[Marty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an engaging but very disturbing look at the process that lead Truman Capote to write Answered Prayers, the book-that-wasn't-quite. The author calls this a psycho-biography, emphasis being on the mental development/damage Capote suffered throughout his life. It is this damage and his reaction to it that Schultz believes resulted in Capote's vitriolic attack on the high society matrons whom he called his 'swans'. A very sad look at the life of an extraordinarily talented and self-destructive man.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not a biography or a literary analysis. It's more of a look at the complex drives and events from his past that led Capote to begin a book that would ruin his friendships with society women and send him on a fatal downward spiral. If you like looking at a writer's body of work and teasing out the various themes to be found, you'll enjoy Tiny Terror.

[Archie Hamerton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Am I wholeheartedly convinced by the read of Capote? Not quite. Do I admire the approach? Yes it’s good fun

[Christopher Renberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author knows his stuff and does a thorough job in this “psychobiography”. He ties his theories into the works of Capote. I just felt overwhelmed by all the jargon and theories and whatnot. In the end, I have a better understanding of why Capote seemed to sabotage himself with the swans and that is the stated purpose of the author. It just went over my head quite a bit and was a bit of a slog.

[Tracey Duncan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very disappointed with this book. The author only added his psychological insights in the final chapter and seemed to pull all his quotes and information from Gerald Clarke’s biography, Truman’s letters, and other writings. There was no new information given.

[Marla Elysian · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a waste of time.

[Melissa Riggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes-I'm off on a Truman Capote rabbit hole after reading about his "swans" in a historical fiction novel. For a small book, this took me incredible long to read. I felt like I was back in school doing required reading. I don't think I learned anything new that wasn't in the historical fiction book.

"Truman Capote was one of the most gifted and flamboyant writers of his generation, renowned for such books as Other Voices, Other Rooms, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and his masterpiece, the nonfiction novel In Cold Blood. What has received comparatively little attention, however, is Capote's last, unfinished book, Answered Prayers, a merciless skewering of cafe society and the high-class women Capote called his "swans." When excerpts appeared he was immediately blacklisted, ruined socially, labeled a pariah. Capote retreated--disgraced, depressed, and all but friendless.
In Tiny Terror, a new volume in Oxford's Inner Lives series, William Todd Schultz sheds light on the life and works of Capote and answers the perplexing mystery--why did Capote write a book that would destroy him? Drawing on an arsenal of psychological techniques, Schultz illuminates Capote's early years in the South, a time that Capote himself described as a "snake's nest of No's"--no parents to speak of, no friends but books, no hope, no future. Out of this dark childhood emerged Capote's prominent dual life-scripts: neurotic Capote, anxious, vulnerable, hypersensitive, expecting to be hurt; and Capote the disagreeable destroyer, emotionally bulletproof, nasty, and bent on revenge. Schultz shows how Capote would strike out when he felt hurt or taken for granted, engaging in caustic feuds with Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams, and many other writers. And Schultz reveals how this tendency fed into Answered Prayers, an exceedingly corrosive and thinly disguised roman a clef that trashed his high-society friends."

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book about author Truman Capote and his never-finished book, 'Answered Prayers'. Portions of the book were published during his lifetime, the most controversial story being "La Cote Basque, 1965" published in the mid-70s. This was a very thinly disguised account of the society women such as Babe Paley and 'Slim' Keith, among others, with whom he frequently lunched and had listened to all their innermost secrets, then proceeded to put them in the story. Neither of these women ever spoke to him again.

This book was written by a "psychobiographer", William Todd Schultz, who goes through each of Capote's major works and discusses why Capote would go out of his way to alienate those closest to him. There is a particularly complete chapter on "In Cold Blood" and the author's opinions as to whether Capote had a sexual relationship, or at least a love relationship, with either of the two killers. Also, the character Holly Golightly in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (whose real name, we learn during the book and movie, is Lula Mae), was supposedly based on Truman's own mother. (Truman was very unhappy when Audrey Hepburn was cast in the movie as Holly; he had wanted Marilyn Monroe to play the role.)

It was mainly interesting except when the author veered too long into his psychological theories about Capote having attachment-- or detachment-- problems in dealing with others.

**#60 of 100 books pledged to read/review in 2015**

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good, short read applying psychoanalysis to the works and biography of my personal patron saint, Truman Capote. I think the author was pretty spot-on in many ways, more questionable elsewhere. Overalll, he helped me make sense of many of the great man's works and persistent fictional themes. For all the author made of St. Truman's attachment issues, why was there no comment on his long-term sttled relationships, like the one with Jack Dunphy? The writer tried a leetle too hard to be scholarly and then bungled everything by persistently using "like" where he needed to use "as."

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this form: psychobiography. Todd was on the show with this book and with his psychobiography about Diane Arbus and I love the form and love the way he delves into his subjects lives. With this one, it was interesting to see into Capote. Also interesting to learn that Capote hated the movie version of Breakfast at Tiffanys. His book is so much darker.

[Scout · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cogent and precise analysis of Capote's life, drawing intricate connections between his relationship to his mother and his art. Definitely a must-read for those interested in the psychological links between Capote's difficult and fascinating life and his often difficult, always fascinating writing.

[Eric Andrews-Katz]

A good hypothetical study of Truman Capote. Some of it a little fanciful, but most of it was good for thought. This should NOT be the first or only bio of Capote. This is more of an amendment or side study of a very talented, but tormented soul.

[Tricia Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anything about Truman Capote is extraordinarily interesting, this is a psychobiography, written by a clinical psychologist, so lots of psycho babble, which I happen to love!

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

An author who really understands the psychology of this author.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

You always reach the conclusion you want if you leave out material that may contradict it... Convenient and much like a high school research paper. A good one, but still.

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rating is no reflection on the author or his work, I had just finished Melanie Benjamin's book and thought I'd find this one more interesting than I did.