Don Lemon, the CNN host, was asked in the New York Times Book Review's "By the Book" Q & A column (March 21, 2021), to describe the "ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how)."
His answer sounds like something that would appeal to me: "The ideal reading experience is a Sunday afternoon in fall or winter with PJs, fur-lined slippers, a roaring wood-burning fireplace, WBGO Jazz 88 playing quietly in the background with a good book in hand and the Sunday New York Times in reach."
Lemon is later asked to name three writers, alive or dead, he would invite to a literary dinner party: "Obvious answer: [James] Baldwin, [Toni] Morrison, and [Truman] Capote."
A fascinating choice of writers. However, he would have to be careful what he told Capote. Anything said in confidence might end up in a short story or article. I would suggest Lemon read a biographical novel called The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin (Delacorte Press, 2016). It's about Babe Paley (the wife of broadcasting mogul William Paley) and her wealthy friends who befriended Capote and revealed their secrets to him; they later felt betrayed by Capote when those secrets were published in an Esquire article he wrote. That ended those friendships and Capote never recovered from those losses.
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