Feud: Capote's Women

Description: Set in the 1970s, and ends with Truman Capote’s death in 1984. It chronicles the tale of the famous wunderkind author as he stabs several of his female friends — whom he called his “swans” — in the back by publishing a roman à clef short story called “La Côte Basque 1965” in Esquire in 1975. The piece was intended to be a chapter in Capote’s infamous unfinished novel “Answered Prayers,” his followup to the blockbuster “In Cold Blood.” Following the enormous success of “In Cold Blood,” Capote was the toast of New York high society who counted the city’s most beautiful, stylish, and wealthy women as close friends, his swans. La Côte Basque‘s characters were thinly disguised versions of Capote’s female confidants and exposed their shocking secrets and scandals, from adultery to murder. Its publication destroyed Capote’s friendships, with all of his swans cutting him off, as well as his reputation and his social standing.

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