Inscribed by Capote to his Mentor and Collaborator
Local Color.
New York: Random House, [1950].
Price: $8,500.00
About the item
Stated first printing. 18 black and white photographs. 92 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Publisher's boards with portions of jacket adhering to covers; jacket chipped and torn to edges with loss to spine panel. Damp-stained, though not affecting the inscribed leaf. Good. In custom clamshell box.
Item #333313
A charmingly inscribed copy from Capote to Harold Arlen, his friend, surrogate father and mentor. Inscribed "for Harold, my very own bit of Local Color - Love from Truman Feb. 1954 (The day I said 'It doesn't sing, Harold.')"
Arlen, the composer of Over the Rainbow and many celebrated musicals, befriended the young Capote, who lived off and on in his New York apartment for several years. The two wrote a musical House of Flowers together, with Arlen providing the music and Capote the lyric and book, which would premiere in December of the same year as this inscription.
