In it, a contemporary writer recalls his early days in New York City, when he makes the acquaintance of his remarkable neighbor, Holly Golightly.

The novella's setting plays a great role in the plot; various wealthy characters from the Upper East Side come in and out of Holly Golightly's life.

As such, she has no job and lives by socializing with wealthy men, who take her to clubs and restaurants, and give her money and expensive presents; she hopes to marry one of them.

Eventually, Holly's visits to the prison draw suspicion and she is arrested after further evidence unveils that Sally Tomato was running a drug ring.

Claims have been made as to the source of the character, the "real Holly Golightly", in what Capote called the "Holly Golightly Sweepstakes",[5] including socialite Gloria Vanderbilt, actress Oona O'Neill,[6] writer/actress Carol Grace,[7] writer Maeve Brennan,[8] writer Doris Lilly,[9] model Dorian Leigh (whom Capote dubbed "Happy Go Lucky"),[10][11] and her sister, model Suzy Parker.

[12] Capote's biographer Gerald Clarke wrote "half the women he knew... claimed to be the model for his wacky heroine.

[6][15] Capote was also unsuccessfully sued for libel and invasion of privacy by a Manhattan resident named Bonnie Golightly who claimed that he had based Holly on her.

McCracken's biographer suggests that Capote was inspired by this event as a model for a scene in which Holly reacts to her brother's death overseas.

It was to be illustrated with a big series of photo montages by David Attie, who had been hired for the job by Harper's art director Alexey Brodovitch.

By this time, Attie's montages had been completed, and Alice Morris, the fiction editor of Harper's, recounted that while Capote initially refused to make any changes, he relented "partly because I showed him the layouts... six pages with beautiful, atmospheric photographs".

[24] In "Breakfast at Sally Bowles", Ingrid Norton of Open Letters Monthly pointed out Capote's debt to Christopher Isherwood, one of his mentors, in creating the character of Holly Golightly: "Breakfast at Tiffany's is in many ways Capote's personal crystallization of Isherwood's Sally Bowles.

"[25] Truman Capote's aunt, Marie Rudisill, notes that Holly is a kindred spirit of Miss Lily Jane Bobbit, the central character of his short story "Children on Their Birthdays".

[27] The novella's prose style prompted Norman Mailer to call Capote "the most perfect writer of my generation," adding that he "would not have changed two words in Breakfast at Tiffany's".

[28] The novella was loosely adapted into the 1961 movie Breakfast at Tiffany's starring Audrey Hepburn and directed by Blake Edwards.

[citation needed] The initial performances were panned by the critics and despite a rewrite by Edward Albee, it closed after four previews and never officially opened.

Kruschen's role was based on Joe Bell, a major character in Capote's novella who was omitted from the film version.

The first production was written by Samuel Adamson and was presented in 2009 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London, starring Anna Friel as Holly Golightly and Joseph Cross as William "Fred" Parsons.

[30][31][32][33] The second version was written by Richard Greenberg for a 2013 Broadway production at the Cort Theatre, starring Emilia Clarke as Holly Golightly, Cory Michael Smith as Fred, and George Wendt as Joe Bell.

It ran at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in the West End in June to September 2016, with Pixie Lott starring as Holly Golightly.

[35] Playboy: Would you elaborate on your comment that Holly was the prototype of today's liberated female and representative of a "whole breed of girls who live off men but are not prostitutes.