Lindsey Graham

In fact, it's heartbreak most of the time.

All this made Lee's New York experience stand in sharp contrast to Capote's, with his successful writing career and circle of creative artist friends.

One of those fellow artists was a Broadway musical composer named Michael Brown, another Southern transplant.

When Lee first arrived in New York, Capote had asked Brown to show her around and help her settle in.

The two of them became fast friends.

Lee began to share her writing with Brown and his wife Joy, and she soon became a regular at their townhouse on East 50th Street, bringing along the latest stories she'd been working on to read aloud to them.

And the couple was always impressed with what they heard.

So in November of 1956, Michael Brown set Lee up with a literary agent he knew.

After reading a batch of Lee's short stories, the agent told her she had real talent.

But short stories were tough to sell.

Instead, the agent advised her to try writing a novel.

But with Lee's busy airline job, she was hard-pressed to find the time.

The next month, the Browns insisted that Lee stay at their house so she wouldn't be alone during the holidays.

And at Christmas, they would present her with a gift that would change Lee's life forever.

Imagine it's Christmas morning in 1956.

Snow is coating the ground outside your 19th century townhouse in New York.

You're a father of two eager toddlers who've been nagging you for days to let them open the carefully wrapped presents under the tree in your living room.

You wake up and groggily head downstairs to light a fire in the fireplace.

One of your kids races past you up the stairs to awaken your sleeping house guest, your good friend Nell Lee.

A few minutes later, Nell comes down the stairs.