About the Book
One hot summer night in 1945, three young American writers, each an enfant terrible, came together in a stuffy Manhattan apartment for the first time. Each member of this pink triangle was on the dawn of world fame--Tennessee Williams for A Streetcar Named Desire; Gore Vidal for his notorious homosexual novel, The City and the Pillar; and Truman Capote for Other Voices, Other Rooms, a book that had been marketed with a photograph depicting Capote as a underaged sex object that caused as much controversy as the prose inside. Each of the three remained competitively and defiantly provocative throughout the course of his writing career. Initially hailed by critics as "the darlings of the gods," each of them would, in time, be attacked for his contributions to film, the theater, and publishing. Some of their works would be widely reviewed as "obscene rantings from perverted sociopaths."
From that summer night emerged betrayals that eventually evolved into lawsuits, stolen lovers, public insults, and the most famous and flamboyant rivalries in America's literary history. The private opinions of these authors about their celebrity acquaintances usually left scar tissue.
Vidal became the most iconoclastic writer since Voltaire, needling and satirizing the sacred cows of his era and explosively describing subjects which included America's gay founding fathers, the lesbian affairs of Eleanor Roosevelt, his own seduction of the Beat Generation's spiritual leader and guru, Jack Kerouac. The book contains an overview of Vidal's hot, then glacial, relationship with the fabled diarist Anaïs Nin, and the drawn-out slugfests which followed.
Capote became the mascot of the ultra-fashionable jet set, surrounded and showcased by his glamorous "swans." Eventually, Capote feuded not only with Vidal, but with "The Queen of the Best-Sellers," Jacqueline Susann, publicly referring to her as "a truck driver in drag." Capote's own struggles for bestsellerdom are depicted during the research of his all-time hit, In Cold Blood, wherein he falls hopelessly in love with one of its killers. The book contains details about his hosting of "The Party of the Century," and his self-destructive descent into isolation, alcohol, and drugs.
Tennessee Williams, attacked for his "incurable sense of decadence," became as notorious as his plays. His tumultuous private life is explored as never before in a portrait that's as poignant and flamboyant as any character he created, including that of Blanche DuBois. Did Tennessee really perform fellatio on JFK at his Palm Beach compound? Did Warren Beatty really have sex with him as a means of procuring his role as the gigolo in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone? What really happened when a then-unknown actor, Marlon Brando, arrived on Tennessee's doorstep in Provincetown during World War II?
About the Author :
Darwin Porter, himself an unrepentant enfant terrible, moved through the entourages of this Pink Triangle with impunity for several decades of their heydays. Today he is one of the most respected and highly visible celebrity biographers in the world. ISBNs and titles of author's previous books: Marilyn at Rainbow's End 978-1-936003-29-7; Elizabeth Taylor, There is Nothing Like a Dame 978-1-936003-31-0; Brando Unzipped 978-0-9748118-2-6
Review :
"A banquet... If PINK TRIANGLE had not been written for us, we would have had to research and type it all up for ourselves...Pink Triangle is nearly seven hundred pages of the most entertaining histrionics ever sliced, spiced, heated, and serviced up to the reading public. Everything that Blood Moon has done before pales in comparison. "Given the fact that the subjects of the book themselves were nearly delusional on the subject of themselves (to say nothing of each other) it is hard to find fault. Add to this the intertwined jungle that was the relationship among Williams, Capote, and Vidal, of the times they vied for things they loved most--especially attention--and the times they enthralled each other and the world, [Pink Triangle is] the perfect antidote to the Polar Vortex."--Vinton McCabe, Senior Reviewer "New York Journal of Books"
"This is a book that should be included in the curriculum of Gay 101 for every 20-something Gay man (and an elective for Lesbian women) who have never experienced the trashy catastrophe that was Boom! and only knew of In Cold Blood from the Phillip Seymour Hoffman flick. It's also primo beach reading for any Gay theatre/gossip queen over the age of 35. And it is definitely one of the top achievements of writer Darwin Porter, co-author/publisher Danforth Prince, and the notorious imprint, Blood Moon Productions. "Imagine Blanche DuBois, Holly Golightly, and Myra Breckenridge attending the Black and White Ball accompanied by Caligula and Stanley Kowalski, sharing their drugs, booze, and carnal charms with anyone who was anyone. That's pretty much the tone and tenor of The Pink Triangle...a trifecta of geniuses who turned Broadway, Hollywood, and the literary world on its collective ear in the space of two and a half decades... Three extraordinary men, they partied feuded, admired, and despised each other for a sizable chunk of late 20th century cultural history... It's depressing to contemplate what America's cultural landscape would look like without the influence of these three men--a lot more dull, a lot less passionate and transgressive, and definitely less trashy and spectacular." --June 27, 2014, by SGN staff writer, Maggie Bloodstone--Maggie Bloodstone, Staff Writer "The Seattle Gay News"
"Full disclosure: I have been a friend and follower of Blood Moon Productions' tomes for years, and always marveled at the amount of information in their books--it's staggering. The index alone to Pink Triangle runs to 21 pages--and the scale of names in it runs like a Who's Who of American social, cultural and political life through much of the 20th century."--Perry Brass, Senior Reviewer, The Huffington Post, & President, Bellehue Press "The Huffington Post"
"We Brits are not spared the Porter/Prince silken lash either. PINK TRIANGLE's research is, quite frankly, breathtaking. PINK TRIANGLE will fascinate you for many weeks to come. Once you have made the initial titillating dip, the day will seem dull without it."--Jeffery Taylor, Book Reviewer and Dance Critic "The Sunday Express (UK)"
