FRUITCAKE

Memories of Truman Capote and Sook
Marie Rudisill | Author

• $15.95 hardcover
• 96 pages | 20 illustrations | 22 recipes
• 1-892514-81-8
• Food/Christmas

The book behind "The Fruitcake Lady" from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

“Any decent dinner ends with dessert and there is none more worthy and elegant than fruitcake.”—Marie Rudisill

the book

Truman Capote's humble yet legendary aunt, Marie Rudisill, knows that fruitcakes are meant to be enjoyed not only during the Christmas holidays but year-round. The roots for her love of fruitcake in all its varieties run much deeper than sheer nostalgia for old-fashioned holidays. She fondly remembers the childhood years when Capote visited her and his cousin, Sook Faulk. Sook and Capote faithfully delivered these delicate delectables each year to nearby neighbors and needy families in an old baby carriage. In fact, many of the people who received Sook's fruitcakes later appeared in Capote's stories.

Rudisill's mythic stories of the Old South provide a poignant glimpse into holidays of a more gracious era while shedding new insight into the life of one of the most significant writers of the twentieth century. The twenty-two time-tested recipes in Fruitcake range from chocolate and rum fruitcakes to thematic cakes such as the Robert E. Lee fruitcake and one said to have come from Martha Washington's personal cookbook.

the author

Marie Rudisill is the author of several books including Sook's Cookbook, Truman Capote: The Story of His Bizarre and Exotic Childhood, and Critter Cakes & Frog Tea. She has made fruitcakes annually for over eighty years.

also of interest:  Southern Christmas

also of interest:  The Silent Stars Go By

also of interest:  The Hand-Carved Creche