Capote

became the loving mirror to a whole new group of such remarkable women. He danced with Marilyn Monroe at El Morocco, he conspired with Elizabeth Taylor to save Montgomery Clift, he talked through long nights with Jacqueline Kennedy, and he became the trusted confidant of the most regal of his armada of swans, the grand and social ladies

any woman who took his advice, whatever her age or position in life, he looked upon as his protégée, a work of art that needed only his word or hand to bring her to perfection.

picked her to play Holly Golightly in the movie version of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but Hollywood, which had different plans for his heroine, chose Audrey Hepburn instead. “Marilyn would have been absolutely marvelous in it,” he stubbornly maintained. “She wanted to play it too, to the extent that she worked up two whole scenes all by herself and did them for me. She was terrifically good

He thought about it and got the sense of what a person wanted to be, or how she wanted to appear, and then he helped her to achieve it. It was his way of getting close to her. He was the best pal ever, someone who would coo at you and tell you that you were wonderful. What’s love? It’s a mirror saying you’re a perfect person.”

provisions of Truman’s will went into effect, with income from his estate going to scholarships for aspiring writers and to valuable prizes for outstanding literary critics

As his pulse grew weaker, his conversation was reduced to phrases. “Beautiful Babe” was one. “Mama, Mama” was another. Finally: “It’s me, it’s Buddy”—Buddy was Sook’s nickname for him. “I’m cold,” he said at last.

“No,” he replied. “I don’t want to go through that again. No more hospitals. My dear, I’m so very tired. If you care about me, don’t do anything. Just let me go. I know exactly what I’m doing. I’ve decided to go to China, where there are no phones and there is no mail service.” He continued to talk, about his mother mostly, but also about his writing and Answered Prayers

If the paramedics had been called, Truman’s life probably could have been saved. But that, clearly, he did not want, and perhaps it is not important to ask whether he had tried to commit suicide: even if he had, he had been given a reprieve, a second chance. But given a choice between life and death, he chose death.

The autopsy, which was performed by the Los Angeles County coroner, could find no “clear mechanism of death,”

She thought that breakfast might pick him up, but he prevented her from leaving, grabbing her hand and pulling her down beside him on his bed. “No,” he said, “stay here.”

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“No, I’m not,” he answered. “But I soon will be.”

“Truman, I think I want to call the paramedics,” she said, starting to rise. Once again he held her down, and for the next three and possibly four hours he talked and talked, until he could talk no longer.