1459000 1948 Truman Capote. Other Voices Other Rooms.

 

CAPOTE, Truman. Other Voices, Other Rooms. New York: Random House, (1948). Octavo, original beige cloth, original dust jacket.  First edition of Capote’s first book, from his own library, with his ink ownership stamp to the front free endpaper.  Provocative and disturbing, Capote’s first published novel is 'a meditation on how fate can debase youthful expectations.' Brimming with Southern atmosphere, it portrays a desperate life characterized by, in Capote’s words, 'a certain anguished, pleading intensity like the message stuffed in a bottle and thrown into the sea.' The work is also semi-autobiographical 'an attempt to exorcise demons,' although Capote claimed years later that he was unaware of this when he wrote it. Published when Capote was 23, Other Voices, Other Rooms propelled him to the forefront of the young generation of novelists that flooded the American literary scene after World War II. Pencil gift inscription to front free endpaper, not affecting Capote’s ink ownership stamp. Book with light wear to spine ends. Dust jacket with light rubbing, tape repairs to verso. A near-fine copy.