The poster from the movie «Breakfast at Tiffany’s» that would mark forever Audrey Hepburn’s career as the legendary character of Holly Golightly.

Parikia in the ‘50s, the decade Truman Capote visited Paros.

TRUMAN CAPOTE

Text: Maro Voulgari

Postcard from Paros

In that June of bygone 1958, the then fledgling writer Truman Capote arrives at the Meltemi Hotel in Paros. He has just finished his short novel Breakfast at Tiffany’s and is looking for a break from the turbulent waters of the New York literary scene. Now was the time for letting the sun and the blue Aegean, parties, drinking, adventure and love into his life.

Gazing at the Aegean Sea from room No 15 of the Meltemi Hotel at Parikia, where the current City Hall now stands, the writer who became a household name with “In Cold Blood”, the publishing event of the ’60s, reports: “Adore this island, prefer it to anywhere I’ve ever stayed. Absolutely beautiful. Just sun, sea and serenity. Not tourists to speak of. The town is dead-white – with blue courtyards and walls covered with morning-glory vine, and terraces roofed with grape-arbor: like a clean, cool Casbah.” And further down, “Here, in the islands, all the men dance together – you never see a lady in the taverns. All very innocent, though […].”

Greece is a mere stopover in his far-roaming escapade onboard a steamboat setting sail in New York on its voyage to Trieste, calling at the ports of Lisbon, Barcelona and Patras along the way. He is accompanied by his ten-year-older, fellow writer and life partner, Jack Dunphy.

He has brought with him the newly proof-read manuscript of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. He keeps changing the name of his protagonist before settling on legendary “Holly Golightly” for the character that would so indelibly mark Audrey Hepburn’s career.

During his four-month stay on Paros, the young author writes piles of correspondence. He has also undertaken to provide commentary on Richard Avedon’s photo album, Observations. On his bedside table, lie novels by his two favourite authors, Proust and Chandler, and he mails dozens of postcards from the local post office.

“This is quite a remote and lonely place I’ve picked,” he writes to his friend Bennett Cerf, “as there are no other foreigners”. And he goes on to remark that it’s a lovely and, hopefully, a good place to work given that there is not much else to do. Meanwhile, he has already embarked on writing “Answered Prayers”, an unfinished novel that was not to be published until after his death. At some point, in August, Cecil Beaton, Capote’s close friend, war photographer during World War II, fashion photographer for British Vogue, and the British royal family’s official photographer, also turns up on the island.

Capote had written to him describing the hotel as clean, pleasant and comfortable. He urged Beaton to join him and Dunphy, promising a nice arrangement and praising the island as an ideal place to rest, work, swim and stroll.

With Cecil Beaton’s arrival, the gang grows. Yet, Truman seems to prefer relaxing to partying. And while his friends are revelling at impromptu parties thrown around a record player at “Alona” – a hillock adjacent to the hotel, he sets about tracking, through his correspondence, the publicity progress of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. Capote’s friend, Carmel Snow, is fired from Harper’s Bazaar, where it was originally about to be published, and the piece, deemed too racy by the new editor, is resold and, eventually, published by Esquire.

Four-legged friends also feature in his recounts. “Kelly is filled with ticks and burrs,” Bunky is scratching himself all the time, while he is as tanned as can possibly be, he writes to his friend Donald Windham, adding that sunsets are getting shorter and, in the evenings, September is sending cool and biting signals that summer is drawing to a close.

In a subsequent postcard, he notes: “Dunphy rescued a kitten a boy had thrown into the sea. I have called her Diotima after the woman who taught Socrates all about love”. And futher down, “Kitty is fine, though last night she produced a crisis by dissapearing [sic] for several hours. We went out with flashlights and found her.”