A touching autograph letter from the great author, to the younger writer Kenneth Silverman, providing words of encouragement. May 26, 1959. 2 pp. Capote writes: "Dear Mr. Silverman, This is not an answer to your very kind letter; it is merely an acknowledgement: I am in the midst of work that does not leave me the time to reply in the manner you deserve. For what it is worth (not much) I made a few remarks on the subject of style which appear in the book 'Writers at Work.' Of course I am extremely sympathetic to your interest in the question: so few writers, much less readers, are, or even know that it exists. But there is really no practical help that one can offer; it is a matter of self-discovery, of one's own conviction, of working with one's own work: your style is what seems natural to you. It is a long process of discovery, one that never ends, I am still working at it, and will be as long as I live. So must you. With every good wish for your health as an artist, and otherwise—Most sincerely, T. Capote." Together with the original envelope, printed with the name and address of photographer Richard Avedon and additionally signed on the flap by Capote. (Capote published an essay on Avedon in his portrait collection Observations in 1959.) Folding creases and light toning; overall fine. 4 x 6 inches (10 x 15.2 cm).

Truman Capote rose above a childhood troubled by divorce, a long absence from his mother, and multiple migrations, discovering his calling as a writer by the age of 8. The critical success of his 1945 story "Miriam" attracted the attention of Random House publisher Bennett Cerf, and resulted in a contract to write the novel Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948). In 1958, the collection Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Short Novel and Three Stories followed. Capote earned the most fame with In Cold Blood (1965), a journalistic work about the murder of a Kansas farm family in their home.

Kenneth Eugene Silverman was an American biographer and educator. He won a Pulitzer Prize and a Bancroft Prize for his 1984 biography of Cotton Mather, The Life and Times of Cotton Mather. Silverman, who specialized In Colonial American literature, was a professor of English at New York University until his retirement in 2001.