"Summer Crossing", novel written by Truman Capote to be published next week

An early, unreleased Truman Capote novel will be published next month by Random House, Inc. "Summer Crossing," which Capote started in 1943 and later claimed to have destroyed, is the story of socialite Grady McNeil and her adventures in New York.

"Dashing, defiant, and irrepressibly carefree, the novel's heroine will remind readers of one of Truman Capote's most lasting creations, Holly Golightly in `Breakfast at Tiffany's,"' Random House said Thursday in a statement.

Capote, who died in 1984, had hired the sitter to look after his Brooklyn apartment while he was in Switzerland writing his classic true-crime book, "In Cold Blood," which came out in 1966, the AP reports. The manuscript of "Summer Crossing" was found last year at the bottom of a box of Capote manuscripts and photos that was consigned by a relative of the author's former house sitter. AM