Title: Thanksgiving Visitor
Publisher: Hamish Hamilton
Publication Date: 1967
Binding: Hardcover
Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
Edition: 1st
PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT FRONTISPIECE. 1st edition and a VG+ book in VG dw with small nick at top of back cover. Otherwise, no marks and not price clipped.
Another masterpiece by the great American writer Truman Capote is brought to an audience of all ages. Buddy and his closest friend, his eccentric, elderly cousin, Miss Sook - the memorable characters from Capote's A Christmas Memory--love preparing their old country house for Thanksgiving. But there's trouble in the air. Odd Henderson, a scrawny, freckled, red-headed bully makes Buddy the target of his relentless torment. But Miss Sook only counsels patience and understanding, "He can't help acting ugly; he doesn't know any different," she says. Filled with emotions that are universal to both young readers and adults, this poignant story brings to life what we all should cherish and be thankful for--the gifts of friendship and love.
Anyone who can bring young people Capote's exquisite autobiographical story is to be thanked. From the first line ("Talk about mean! Odd Henderson was the meanest human creature in my experience" ), readers will be held by Buddy's fear and hatred of the ragged bully who picks on him and calls him "sissy." Peck's paintings capture Buddy's misery and also his playful, loving bond with his eccentric, aging spinster cousin in the family house in rural Alabama in 1932. Buddy and Miss Sook become friends in their "separate loneliness" ; she is there to comfort him from a nightmare or join him in a pillow fight; they are "giggly and giddy and stupid together." So he is absolutely furious when Miss Sook invites Odd Henderson for Thanksgiving dinner. Then, with family and friends gathered round the big dinner table, Buddy gets his chance for revenge on the bully at last.