Issue:

№17 2024

УДК / UDK: 821.111(73).0
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-7894-2024-17-192-221

EDN:

https://elibrary.ru/EJJLPP

Author: Denis V. Zakharov
About the author:

Denis V. Zakharov, independent researcher, Moscow, Russia.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2947-8740

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Abstract:

The article tells about a decade of Russian scholar Denis Zakharov’s studies dedicated to Truman Capote’s literary heritage, his quest and discoveries of the unknown stories, feuilletons, poems and school essays by Capote, found in the 2014–2024 in American libraries and archives. Among them — the unfinished manuscript about Moscow “The Daughter of the Russian Revolution” (1958–1959), unfinished novella “The Wrong Mrs. Rockefeller”, made famous by the publication in 2023 in The Strand magazine as unknown short story “Another Day in Paradise”, and a draft of the notes (the precursor of a chapter from “La Côte Basque, 1965”), which could become another unknown piece by Truman Capote, worthy of publication as posthumous legacy of the writer. The article describes Denis Zakharov’s personal archive which contains more than fifty Capote's works in various genres, little known among Capote’s researchers. The article also sheds light on the history of the appearance of the writer's manuscripts in the archival funds of the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress, and describes the experience of incorporating information about these finds into Capote’s scholarly research. Denis Zakharov reveals the details of his attempts to organize the publication of Capote’s works, his communication with Russian publishers, editors of foreign magazines, the writer's biographer Gerald Clarke and the copyright owner lawyer Alan U. Schwartz. The article summarizes the results of the scholar’s ten-year research and traces the vector of further studies in the field as well as the prospects of publishing the unknown works of Truman Capote found by Denis Zakharov.

Keywords: Truman Capote, literary heritage, unknown works, Denis Zakharov, Capote in the USSR, “The Daughter of the Russian Revolution”, American literature, Capote’s centenary, Capote biography materials.
For citation:

Zakharov, Denis. “‘The Knight of Capote.’ In Search of the Unknown Works by the American Writer.” Literature of the Americas, no. 17 (2024): 192–221. https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-7894-2024-17-192-221  

References:

Leonard 2020 — Leonard, Sophia. The Investigation Truman Capote Started, But Never Finished, on Russian Socialites. The Literary Hub (February 7, 2020). https://lithub.com/the-investigation-truman-capote-started-but-never-finished-on-russian-socialites/ Roshani 2024 — Roshani, Anuschka. Truboy. Mein Sommer mit Truman Capote. Zürich-Berlin: Kein & Aber, 2024.

Too Brief a Treat 2004 — Too Brief a Treat: The Letters of Truman Capote. Edited by Gerald Clarke. New York: Random House, 2004.

Truman Capote 2014 — Truman Capote: materialy, issledovaniya, nahodki [Truman Capote: Materials, studies, discoveries]. Edited by D. Zakharov. Moscow: n.p., 2014. (In Russ.)

Young 2023 — Young, James.B. Truman Capote as a Poet. Methodist Debakey Cardiovasc J. 19, no.1 (Aug. 1, 2023):104–106.

Zakharov 2017 – Zakharov, Denis. “Holli Golajtli — russkaya? S kem Trumen Kapote vstrechalsya v SSSR” [“Is Holly Golightly Russian? Who Met Truman Capote in the USSR”]. Afisha Daily (26.01.2017). https://daily.afisha.ru/culture/4271-holligolaytli-russkaya-s-kem-trumen-kapote-vstrechalsya-v-sssr/ (In Russ.)

Zakharov 2020 — Zakharov, Denis.V. “Neizvestnyi Kapote. Yuvenal'nye raboty i neizdannye rasskazy amerikanskogo avtora” [“Unknown Capote. Early Works and Unpublished Short Stories by the American Writer”]. Voprosy literatury, no. 4 (2020): 239–266. (In Russ.)

Zakharov 2018 — Zakharov, Denis. “Ob odnoi novelle Trumena Kapote: k istorii sozdaniya i publikacii rasskaza ‘Magazin u mel'nicy’” [“A History of Creation and Publication of Truman Capote’s Short Story ‘Mill Store’.”]. Literatura dvukh Amerik, no. 4 (2018): 78–95. (In Russ.)