'Breakfast at Tiffanys' Draft Up For Auction

A piece of literary history is expected to net at least $250,000 at an Amherst-based auction house.

RR Auction is auctioning the 1958 typed manuscript of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" from author Truman Capote. It contains many of Capote's edits, including some stark changes from the final draft that was printed.

The story centers around a woman living through wealthy men to support herself. The minimum bid for the documents has been set at $10,000.  

Here is a description from RR Auction:  

Awe-inspiring, never-before-offered original Breakfast at Tiffany’s final working draft manuscript for its 1958 Random House publication, 8.5 x 11, consisting of its entire 84 pages, mainly on high-quality goldenrod yellow paper, and copiously annotated throughout by author Truman Capote. Completing the package are the original, hand stenciled title page design, “About the Author” page, colophon, dedication, “other works by,” content, and half-title pages—topped off by the original Random House mailing label addressed to Capote’s Brooklyn residence. The reverse of the contents page is officially stamped “June 27, 1958, The Haddon Craftsmen” [original manufacturers of the book], and the heavily-notated copyright page is likewise stamped but with a slightly different date of “August 5, 1958,” lastly the title page is stamped on the reverse “August 20, 1958.”

There are notations by the author on every single page, with most pages containing at least a dozen, and many pages having closer to 30 corrections; often times there are not just single words but entire phrases rewritten, and several superfluous paragraphs cut. So much more than mere grammatical correcting, Capote has taken expert care in fine tuning his masterpiece for Random House publication. Even in his choosing of seemingly simple single words you can see his understated mastery of the English language: from “mad” to “vexed,” from “keep” to “prevent,” from “simpler” to “scrupulous,” and from “touch” to “stroke,” each tiny change shaping the final picture. 

This breathtaking manuscript presents a rare chance to step inside the mind of a literary master, whose most influential, last second modification to the manuscript was to change his heroine’s name from the dreary Connie Gustafson the now iconic Holly Golightly. In addition to this brilliant fix, which is hand-notated by Capote over 150 times throughout the text, there are hundreds of important annotations and revisions, many quite lengthy. On the first page of the manuscript, Capote hand titles the novella “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” makes several witty one word revisions, and rewrites an entire sentence, fittingly adding “everything I needed, so I felt to become the writer I wanted to be.” 

Find out more at RR Auction.