Michael Shelden remarked that Fouts' "'Deep South' charm masked a volatile, sometimes nasty temper. Fouts' occasionally outrageous behavior made some uncomfortable. In 1938, Fouts introduced Brion Gysin to Paul and Jane Bowles, later shocking them by "shooting flaming arrows from his hotel window onto the busy Champs Élysées below", having spent some time in Tibet, learning archery. Fouts was at one time the boyfriend of artist Peter Watson, however, they separated because of Fouts' opium addiction. Isherwood described him as a mythic figure, "the most expensive male prostitute in the world" and Capote considered him the "Best-Kept Boy in the World". His friends, who called him Denny, included Christopher Isherwood, Brion Gysin, Glenway Wescott, Truman Capote, George Platt Lynes, Jane and Paul Bowles, Jean and Cyril Connolly and Michael Wishart. He was taken up by a series of wealthy male and female patrons. Fouts left for Manhattan, working for a time as a stock boy and attracting a good deal of attention for his looks, which were described as "thin as a hieroglyph, he had dark hair, light brown eyes, and a cleft chin." Writer Glenway Wescott considered him "absolutely enchanting and ridiculously good-looking." Later he was sent north by his father to Washington, D.C., having asked a relative, who was the president of Safeway Inc., to give him a job. In his teens, Fouts worked as a clerk at an ice-cream company in Jacksonville. In 1926, 12-year-old Fouts submitted a letter to Time magazine, protesting the abuse of animals in the making of movies. He had two siblings, Ellen (born 1916) and Frederic (1918–1994). He served as the inspiration for characters by Truman Capote, Gore Vidal, Christopher Isherwood and Gavin Lambert.įrom Jacksonville, Florida, he was born Louis Denham Fouts, a son of Yale graduate Edwin Fouts, who was the president of a broom factory, and his wife, the former Mary E. Denham "Denny" Fouts (– December 16, 1948) was an American male prostitute, socialite and literary muse.
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