Capote's Brooklyn: The Lost Photographs collects eighty stunning, never-before-seen photos of Truman Capote and his Brooklyn Heights neighborhood taken by the young photographer David Attie. The photos were originally comissioned to accompany Capote's brief essay, "A House on the Heights," first published in Holiday magazine in the late 1950s and reissued by The Little Bookroom in 2002. But the photos were never published--until now. Capote's Brooklyn: The Lost Photographs thus provides a unique and tantalizing peek into the celebrated writer's life and the world he inhabited.
David Attie's (1920-1982) first professional assignment, given by his mentor Alexey Brodovitch of Harper's Bazaar, was a series of photo montages to illustrate Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's for the magazine. Following that assignment, Attie's commercial and fine art work was prolific and wide-ranging, shooting covers and spreads for Vogue, Time, Newsweek, Playboy, and Harper'sBazaar. Eli Attie served as a special assistant to President Bill Clinton, and then as Vice President Al Gore's chief speechwriter. He was also a longtime writer on the TV series The West Wing and House.
"This marriage of Capote's glimmering words with Attie's
harmonizing photographs is perfected by the younger Attie's
narrative, in this unparalleled addition to the Capote canon.”
—Shelf Awareness
"When it comes to illustrated works, one relatively slim volume
stands out. Bridging the gap between essay collections and glossy
coffee table tomes is Brooklyn: A Personal Memoir...A real gem
of a find.” —One of the 8 best books in art, Christmas
2015, The Independent (UK)
"Now, no matter where you live, you can get back to Capote's
Brooklyn with its eccentric rich old ladies, multi-ethnic sailors,
also home to drunks, dead horses in the street, ‘brats' that
rollerskated and juvenile delinquent gangs because of a marvelous
stash of photos of Capote and his Brooklyn world discovered by the
son of the photographer David Attie which has been published along
with the original essay he was commissioned to write about his
'hood for Holiday Magazine in 1959, in Brooklyn: A Personal
Memoir by Truman Capote.” —Patricia Zohn, The Huffington
Post
"Capote’s meandering thinking and gorgeous prose preserve the
waterfront architecture and eccentric locals he had come to love
while his contemporaries praised Manhattan. The photos amp up the
nostalgic beauty...The Brooklyn celebrated here is definitively, as
the title promises, Capote’s personal Brooklyn, and it might seem a
far cry from other documentations of the borough in the 1950s. For
fans of the writer or devotees of New York history, the celebration
of this place, where, 'in the greenless grime-gray, oases do occur,
splendid contradictions,' will be a valuable memento.” —Publishers
Weekly
"The long-lost photos...bring even more life to Capote’s sparkling
description of the history and spirit of the neighborhood, with its
eccentric characters, back alleys and fine houses ('as elegant and
other-era as formal calling cards').”
—The New York Times, “Travel"
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