Summer Crossing
First edition
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| Author | Truman Capote |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Random House |
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Publication date
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2005 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) & e-book, audio-CD |
| Pages | 142 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 441129903 |
Summer Crossing is Truman Capote's first novel, written during the 1940s. Capote eventually cast it aside and it was thought to be lost for over 50 years, but was eventually published in 2005.
Capote started writing Summer Crossing in 1943 when he was working for The New Yorker. After taking an evening walk in Monroeville, Alabama, and being inspired to write his first published novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, he set aside the manuscript . On August 30, 1949, while vacationing in North Africa, Capote informed his publisher that he was approximately two-thirds through his first draft of Summer Crossing. He optimistically spoke of finalizing the manuscript by the end of the year, even making a vow that he would not return to the United States until he did, but he never submitted more than a first draft to his publisher. Capote had been making minor edits to the work over a period of approximately 10 years. Robert Linscott, Capote's senior editor at Random House, was unimpressed with the first draft. He said he thought it was a good novel, but that it didn't showcase Capote's "distinctive artistic voice." After reading the draft over several times, Capote noted that the novel was "well written and its got a lot of style", but that he just didn't like it. In particular Capote began "to fear [the novel] was thin, clever, unfelt." Later Capote claimed to have destroyed the unpolished manuscript, along with several other notebooks of prose, as a part of this fit of harsh self-criticism.
A number of writings including the manuscript to Summer Crossing had been rescued from the trash by the house sitter of an apartment in Brooklyn Heights, where Capote lived around 1950. Upon the death of the house sitter, his nephew discovered Capote's papers and sent them to Sotheby's for auction in 2004. The papers failed to sell at auction because of the high price and because the physical papers did not confer publication rights to the work, which were held by the Truman Capote Literary Trust. Subsequently, the New York Public Library reached an agreement to buy the papers and archived them in its permanent Truman Capote Collection. After a consultation with Capote's lawyer, Summer Crossing was published in 2005. The first edition was set from Capote's original manuscript, which was written in four school notebooks and 62 supplemental notes, with an afterword by Alan U. Schwartz, Capote's executor.
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