A JOURNEY WITH LOUIS DENHAM FOUTS - Next Door Magazine

A JOURNEY WITH
LOUIS DENHAM FOUTS

by Kara Pound

I In an excerpt from “Capote: A Biography,” Gerald Photo: Fouts in New York in the 1930s

Clarke writes, “One of those people whose only ambition Clarke is referring to Louis Denham Fouts. Born on
was to attract other people, Denny was superb at his job, May 9, 1914 in Jacksonville, Fouts was a male prostitute and
affording it no more thought or effort than a flower gives to literary muse for authors like Truman Capote, Gore Vidal,
enticing the bees that buzz before its fragrant blossoms, or Christopher Isherwood and Gavin Lambert. Fouts left
than a tropical fish gives to those who admire its peacock Jacksonville in his teens, resided all over the world and died
fins from other sides of the aquarium glass: he was a male on December 16, 1948 at the young age of 35. He’s buried in
whore from Jacksonville, Florida.” Italy at Rome’s Campo Cestio.
Because of his short life span, nomadic behavior and the

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fact that he was born nearly a century ago, it is difficult to Capote continues to give insight into Fouts' persona.
track down information about Fouts. Over the course of two “Denny, long before he surfaced in my cove, was a legend
weeks, I spent hours at local libraries, bookstores, searching well-known to me, a myth entitled: Best-Kept Boy in the
online databases and in the end – much like Fouts lived his World. When Denny was sixteen, he was living in a Florida
life – he’s proven a mythical and intriguing character. crossroads cracker town and working in a bakery owned
“Well, unfortunately we don’t seem to have anything by his father. Rescue – some might say ruin – arrived one
at all on Denham Fouts in the archives,” explains Lauren morning in the fattish form of a millionaire driving a brand-
Swain Mosley, Archives Collections Associate at the new built-to-order 1936 Duesenberg convertible.”
In Capote’s biography, Clarke acquiesces. “Unlike many
Photo: After becoming enamored with the Harold Halma photograph of in his profession, Denny chose his career. When he was
Capote on the original back dust jacket of "Other Voices, Other Rooms,” growing up, Jacksonville still considered itself part of the
Fouts sent a blank check to Truman Capote with only the word “come” reconstructed South. His family thought of itself as part of
written on it. the Southern aristocracy; it was upright, conservative and
intolerant of all those who did not accept its ossified codes –
Jacksonville Historical Society, after searching the society’s a group of outcasts that included Denny, who rebelled and
database. “I am somewhat surprised as he is a fascinating shocked in every way he could.”
character.” Denny was the son of Edwin Louis Fouts, a Yale
Truman Capote’s last novel was unfinished at the time graduate born in 1885 in Denver, Colorado, and Mary E.
of his death. Answered Prayers, a confession of sorts of the Denham Fouts. Fouts had two siblings – Ellen and Frederic.
high and low society members of his time, includes pages of As a young child, Fouts had already proved an interesting
information and insight on Fouts. character. At age 12, he wrote a letter to TIME magazine
“His name was Denham Fouts – Denny, as his friends denouncing animal cruelty in film.
called him, among them Christopher Isherwood and Gore “When I read the article on “Horses” [TIME, May 31,
Vidal. After his death both Isherwood and Vidal impaled GERMANY] where the German moving picture producer,
him as a principal character in works of their own, Vidal in Schwarz, sprung a trap under two horses to make them
his story ‘Pages from an Abandoned Journal’ and Isherwood tumble down the cliff onto the rocks below for the sake of
in a novel, Down There on a Visit. making moving pictures of their agony, I felt as one would
Isherwood passed in 1986, but Vidal is still alive at if someone would suddenly tell you that a certain man had
age 86. An effort to contact Vidal to discuss Fouts and tortured every baby in the world to his death.”
his influence on American literature was returned by Jon As a teenager and young man, it was Fouts’ striking
Ponder, Editor of “Gore Vidal Now,” his official Web site. appearance that put a spell on every older wealthy man he
Ponder wrote, “I’m writing to let you know that Mr. Vidal is met. In “Capote: A Biography,” Clarke describes Fouts. “His
unavailable at present, and so unfortunately won’t be able to extraordinary good looks brought stares wherever he went . .
respond.” . thin as a hieroglyph, he had dark hair, light brown eyes and
a cleft chin and ‘was about the most beautiful boy anybody
16 NEXT DOOR MAGAZINE had ever seen,’ said Jimmy Daniels, who sang at a Harlem
nightclub Denny frequented.”
After two decades of seducing and bedding everyone
from actors to a Greek shipping magnate, to several minor
European royals, Fouts’ years as an opium addict and
cigarette smoker caught up with him, and he died of an early
heart attack at age 35.
In Answered Prayers, Capote writes of Fouts’ death. “I
told Denny I would meet him in Rome, for how could I say

I never meant to see him again, because he scared me? It
wasn’t the drugs and chaos, but the funereal halo of waste
and failure that hovered above him: the shadow of such
failure seemed somehow to threaten my own impending
triumph.”
He continues, “So I went to Italy, but to Venice, not
Rome, and it wasn’t until early winter, when I was alone one
night in Harry’s Bar, that I learned that Denny had died in
Rome a few days after I was supposed to have joined him.”

Photo: Louis Denham Fouts

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