Katharine Graham was lucky: She's one of only a few of Truman Capote's friends who wasn't humiliated in print by the late author.
The two were close enough that Capote threw his legendary 1966 "Black and White Ball" in her honor. Unlike his other society swans, Capote didn't reference her in his infamous short story "La Cote Basque 1965," which exposed embarrassing secrets of his rich and influential friends.
But now it appears he may, in fact, have written a piece about the late Washington Post publisher. Vanity Fair features a previously unpublished very short story -- recently discovered in Capote's papers at the New York Public Library -- with a character that the magazine says is "probably" Graham.
In "Yachts and Things," the narrator (presumably Capote) and "a distinguished and rather intellectual woman, whom I shall call Mrs. Williams" embark on a three-week cruise on the Turkish coast. It's just the two of them and the crew, he explains, because their host has suffered a death in the family and another friend who was supposed to travel with them had suddenly died. This friend has a real name, though: Adlai Stevenson.
"Mrs. Williams" spends her days touring historic sites; the narrator stays on the boat and reads. One night, they invite a party of Turks on board, and both smoke hashish for the first time.
"I don't think I've ever had a better time," Mrs. Williams says the next morning. "And I don't have any hangover at all. I'm only sorry Adlai missed it."
Truth? Fiction?
Sam Kashner, who helped find the Capote manuscript and wrote the article that accompanies it, said he consulted a Capote biographer and other experts to identify the adventurous and well-read "Mrs. Williams." He eliminated other New York socialites and zeroed in on Graham because of her close relationship with Stevenson, the former Democratic presidential candidate and U.N. envoy -- but he admits he didn't have any proof. "I wanted it to be her," he told us.
