THE GRASS HARP and A TREE OF NIGHT and Other Stories. (Signet D-1884)

New York: Signet/New American Library, 1961. First Edition, 2nd Printing . Paperback. Very Good/None as Issued. Text/As New w/margin discoloration. 1961, First Edition, 2nd Printing. Softcover/VG; sound w/shelfwear. THE GRASS HARP, personal favorite of Truman Capote (1924 - 1984), was first published 1951, adapted 1952 to a play, to a musical 1971, and to film 1995. Story of coming to peace of elderly sisters (Dolly & Verena) & a young, orphaned nephew (Colin) now in their charge, aloft in a tree house. The physical setting is based on Capote's memories of childhood in Alabama --- a 1930's tin-roofed, cypress structure with an antique spiral staircase that housed a rattan sofa in a walnut tree sited in cousin Sook's backyard. There hours were spent with friends, including Nelle Harper Lee. The novel also draws from cousin Sook's concoctions of dropsy medicine; the recipe she will take to her grave despite a sister's entreaties for commercialization. In the TREE OF NIGHT (Harpers' Bazaar, Oct, 1945), college sophmore Kay, aboard an over-booked train to Atlanta, sits with an odd couple. --- a chatty, somewhat drunk woman & her deaf-mute male companion. The couple are travelling, performing artists featuring the faux burial of the deaf-mute. Their business card reads: "LAZARUS: The Man Who is Buried Alive. A MIRACLE - SEE FOR YOURSELF. Adults 25 cents; Children 10 cents." Soon conversations shifts to penetrating, intrusive questions about Kay ... her childood memories seem to hang on the haunted limbs of trees of the dark, there and yet not there, as she recalls the cooks, strangers who spun tales or rhymes of spooks, deaths, omens, spirits, demons, albeit with good intentions, especially the wizard man --- "stay close to the house, child, else a wizard man'll snatch & eat you alive! He's everywhere; hear him tapping at the window?" But, the couple are not yet done probing Kay. Readers must read on to know. 216 pgs. These 2 stories are followed by 8 more.