William S. Burroughs put
a hex on Truman Capote and documented the curse in this open letter.
"I have in line of
duty read all your published work. The early work was in some respects
promising — I refer particularly to the short stories. You were granted an area
for psychic development. It seemed for a while as if you would make good use of
this grant. You choose instead to sell out a talent that is not yours to sell.
You have written a dull unreadable book which could have been written by any
staff writer on the New Yorker .You have betrayed and sold out the talent that
was granted you by this department. That talent is now officially withdrawn.
Enjoy your dirty money. You will never have anything else. You will never write
another sentence above the level of In Cold Blood. As a writer you are
finished. Over and out."
It became a fulfilled
prophecy as Truman Capote slipped into a drug and alcohol induced state of non
being and never produced another major work.
I’d love to write a
novel on this.
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