Welcome to the Eric Metaxis show with your host, Eric Metaxus.

Hey there, folks. Have you had enough of politics?

I have. I've had enough of a lot of things. But one thing I haven't had enough of is Truman Capote.

I love his writing. His life was extraordinary, not necessarily in a good way. I just discovered that there's a new book out called

Capote's Women. It is by Lawrence Leamer. The subtitle is A True Story of Love Betrayal and a

swan song for an era. It's a beautiful book, and I'm looking forward to talking about it with its author.

Lawrence Leamer, welcome the program.

Eric, thanks so much for having me. Well, it's a joy. I have written three pretty long biographies

myself, and I appreciate the genre. And I think that there's something you can do in a biography that you can't do in any other book.

You can bring a period of time alive.

It's an extraordinary thing.

The time in which Truman Capote lived the 60s in New York. We can't even begin to really imagine what world he

lived in. But actually, you've begun and you've put it in a book. You've written many books on many

other fabulous people, most of them taller than Truman Capote, which is saying nothing. You've written about

the Kennedys. You've written

about Johnny Carson. What led you, I know you were a journalist, what led you before we get

into this specific book, into writing these kinds of books about these celebrated figures?

Look, alas, I only have one life to lead in writing these books i enter other people's lives

but they've got to be somebody fascinating they've got to be people who live at the edge you take

chances that's what i want whether it's johnny cars or whether it's uh you know the kennedy's or

uh the the jfk or that generation or whoever, or Donald Trump for that matter, people live at the edge.

People who live at the edge.

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