''Local Color'' is the third published book by the
American author
In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...
Truman Capote
Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics ...
, released in the Fall of 1950. ''Local Color'' includes notes and sketches about persons and places, including
travel journal
The genre of travel literature or travelogue encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs.
History
Early examples of travel literature include the ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' (generally considered a 1s ...
-style essays on cities and countries Capote had lived in or visited.
''Local Color'' was published while Capote was vacationing in
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
.
Conception
Because Capote was in the habit of working with a number of fashionable magazines he was very keen to take a personal part in the layout and formatting of the physical book, including color schemes and photographic layouts.
Contents
The book includes nine vignettes:
* "
New Orleans
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
"
* "
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
"
* "
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
"
* "
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood ...
"
* "
Haiti
Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...
"
* "To
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
"
* "
Ischia
Ischia ( , , ) is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about from the city of Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Although inhabited since the Bronze Age, as a Ancient G ...
"
* "
Tangier
Tangier ( ; , , ) is a city in northwestern Morocco, on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The city is the capital city, capital of the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, as well as the Tangier-Assilah Prefecture of Moroc ...
"
* "A Ride Through Spain"
Reception and critical analysis
''Local Color'' received mixed reviews upon its publication. It received a brief unfavorable review from the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
''. The ''
Boston Sunday Herald'' gave Capote's writing an unfavorable review, but praised some of the work's photography. ''
The Providence Sunday Journal'' offered a positive review of Capote's writing style, stating:
:"very good since it is characterized by varied, lively writing, immediate and honest; it is selective, rather romantically coloured, and there is not too much self-intrusion from the author."
Sales of ''Local Color'' reached approximately 4,500 books total.
[Clarke, Gerald. ''Capote: a Biography'' (1998) Carroll & Graff. p. 224]
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
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External links
{{Capote
Books by Truman Capote
Essay collections by Truman Capote
Random House books