He was a skier apparently. This Christmas my parents gave Michelle and me a subscription to the quarterly publication Skiing Heritage. The March 2006 issue has a short backcover piece on Capote the skier which was adapted from a February 1981 Ski Magazine article by Richard Needham.
One of America’s most famous men of letters spent a lot of time in Verbier, Switzerland. Lucky bastard. The article states that it was in his Verbier chalet where Capote turned 6,000 pages of notes into the masterpiece In Cold Blood.
My two favorite quotes from the article follow:
“As for Utah, I find the skiing incredibly crude–it’s like a second-rate boys’ camp in the Adirondacks. All those Mormons running around in black clothes and black ties–it’s like Chanel without jewelry.”
He must not have liked powder. I wonder what he thought of Utah beer? Then again, I doubt Capote drank much beer.
“Skiing gives me a terrific sense of freedom–and I would define that freedom as not having to be around other people.”
Exactly.