Breakfast at Tiffany's (novella) debt to Christopher Isherwood, one of his mentors, in creating the character of Holly Golightly: ""Breakfast at Tiffany's" is in many ways Capote's personal crystallization of Isherwood's Sally Bowles." Truman Capote's aunt, Marie Rudisill notes that Holly is a kindred spirit of Miss Lily Jane Bobbit, the central character of his short story "Children on Their Birthdays". She observes that both characters are "unattached, unconventional wanderers, dreamers in pursuit of some ideal of happiness." Capote himself acknowledged that Golightly was the favorite of his characters. The novella's prose style prompted Norman Mailer to call Capote "the most perfect writer of
Truman Capote of his novel "Other Voices, Other Rooms" (see below), moved to capitalize on this novel's success with the publication of "A Tree of Night and Other Stories" in 1949. In addition to "Miriam", this collection also includes "Shut a Final Door", first published in "The Atlantic Monthly" (August 1947). After "A Tree of Night", Capote published a collection of his travel writings, "Local Color" (1950), which included nine essays originally published in magazines between 1946 and 1950. "A Christmas Memory", a largely autobiographical story taking place in the 1930s, was published in "Mademoiselle" magazine in 1956. It was issued as