“A Christmas Memory” was initially published in Mademoiselle, a woman's magazine, in 1956. Capote's short story was then reprinted in Capote's 1963 collection The Selected Writings of Truman Capote. Since then, it has been reprinted and republished many times because of its status as a Christmas classic.
Capote has said that much of “A Christmas Memory” is autobiographical. Set in the 1930s, the short story tells the story of a seven-year-old boy, who is also the narrator of the story and his peculiar friendship with an elderly woman (who also happens to be his cousin). As the Christmas season approaches, the short story chronicles the duo's friendship, their relationship to Christmas and the holiday season, a friendship which was not societally normal, and the loneliness involved in the woman's life. “I had an elderly cousin, the woman in my story (“A Christmas Memory,”) who was a genius," Capote wrote in a letter to a friend after the short story was initially published.
Capote's story has been adapted into a number of formats, including for the theater, opera, television, film, and radio. Few novels or stories enjoyed such robust success. Even fewer were adapted into different forms as many times as “A Christmas Memory.”
