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maybe can do me a great favor. Did you ever know the Clutter family in Garden City?" Jim said, “The Clutters were my close personal friends. I know everybody in Garden City, Kansas.” I said, “You're an answer to a maiden's prayer. One of our authors is coming out to write a series of stories for The New Yorker, and I hope that it will be a book. Can he stop off on the way and visit you?" He said, “Who is the author?" I said, “Truman Capote.” Jim McCain echoed me, “Truman Capote? Coming to Kansas?" I said, “Yes.” He thought for a minute. He said, “I'll make a deal with him. If he'll spend one night talking to the English department, I'll give him letters to half the people in Garden City.” I said, “I accept for Truman right now. Great! He's bringing a young assistant with him. She's a girl who will have to be put up too. I've never met her. I think she may be some distant relation of Truman. Nobody ever heard of her.” It was...

The To Kill a Mockingbird girl--Harper Lee.

Correct! But she was still unknown at this time. I told Jim, “Before you spring Truman Capote on your English faculty, for god's sake, tip them off. Their first inclination will be to laugh at him. Tell them to listen carefully, and in one hour they will be at his feet. Don't worry about that. Don't let that first impression fool you. He will capture your faculty with the ease of somebody capturing butterflies.”