Listen to Truman Capote narrate ‘A Christmas Memory’ in 1966
Truman Capote must have been feeling especially nostalgic in the winter of 1956. That year, the same in which America hosted the Winter Olympics, the American novelist sat down to write a short story titled A Christmas Memory, an autobiographical tale set during the festive season in which he recalls his childhood friendship with Nanny Faulk, the elderly woman who was, for many years, his best friend. In 1966, the story was re-published by Random House and Capote was invited to narrate this heartwarming TV adaptation of the story.
Known to Capote as Sook, Fanny Rumbley Faulk was the eldest sister of the household in Monroeville, Alabama, where Capote’s parents sent him following their divorce. For the next five years, the young Truman was raised by distant relatives on his mother’s side. During a conversation with People over 30 years after Sook’s death, Capote described her as the “only stable person” in his life. The author, who began writing while still a child, revealed that Sook would give him a dime to go to the movies, after which, on returning home, he would recount the story. “I really think this explains my interest in narrative prose writing,” he said. “You should have seen me do King Kong.”
Capote’s aunt, Marie Rudisill, noted that “the only person that Sook ever cared about was Truman”. Fanny, who was believed to be developmentally disabled, was fascinated by all the things that made young Truman’s imagination fly, frequently telling him ghost stories and showing him wild birds she’d managed to tame. In Capote’s original story, she is described as being “small and sprightly, like a bantam hen; but due to a long youthful illness, her shoulders are pitifully hunched. Her face is remarkable–not unlike Lincoln’s, craggy like that, and tinted by sun and wind; but it is delicate too, finely boned, and her eyes are sherry-coloured and timid.”
Set in the prohibition era, A Christmas Memory tells the story of seven-year-old Buddy (Sook’s nickname for Truman) and his experiences of Christmas in rural Alabama. These were hard times, but Buddy and Sook bring the festive cheer while collecting pecan nuts and other ingredients to make fruitcakes, including illegal whiskey, which they’re forced to purchase from a Native American bootlegger called Haha Jones. Beneath the story’s glaze of nostalgia, there are unignorable notes of melancholy, this being Sook and Buddy’s final Christmas together before he is sent to military school. Trust me when I say that few modern Christmas films are quite as pure and tender as A Christmas Memory. It’s a very worthwhile watch, so make sure you check it out below.
