Truman Capote

Truman Garcia Capote born Truman Streckfus Persons, September 30, 1924 – August 25,
1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor, many of whose short
stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958) and the true crime novel In Cold Blood (1966), which he labeled
a "nonfiction novel". At least 20 films and television dramas have been produced of Capote
novels, stories, and plays.

Capote rose above a childhood troubled by divorce, a long absence from his mother, and
multiple migrations. He had discovered his calling as a writer by the age of 8 (The Dick
Cavett Show, aired August 21, 1980), and for the rest of his childhood he honed his writing
ability. Capote began his professional career writing short stories. The critical success of one
story, "Miriam" (1945), attracted the attention of Random House publisher Bennett Cerf, and
resulted in a contract to write the novel Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948). Capote earned the
most fame with In Cold Blood, a journalistic work about the murder of a Kansas farm family
in their home. Capote spent four years writing the book aided by his lifelong friend Harper
Lee, who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird (1960).[3]

A milestone in popular culture, In Cold Blood was the peak of Capote's literary career; it was
to be his final fully published book. In the 1970s, he maintained his celebrity status by
appearing on television talk shows.

Early life

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Capote was the son of 17-year-old Lillie Mae Faulk and
salesman Archulus Persons. His parents divorced when he was four, and he was sent to
Monroeville, Alabama, where, for the following four to five years, he was raised by his
mother's relatives. He formed a fast bond with his mother's distant relative, Nanny Rumbley
Faulk, whom Truman called "Sook". "Her face is remarkable – not unlike Lincoln's, craggy
like that, and tinted by sun and wind", is how Capote described Sook in "A Christmas
Memory" (1956). In Monroeville, he was a neighbor and friend of author Harper Lee, who is
rumored to have based the character Dill on Capote.[4][5][6]

As a lonely child, Capote taught himself to read and write before he entered his first year of
school. Capote was often seen at age five carrying his dictionary and notepad, and began
writing fiction at the age of 11. He was given the nickname "Bulldog" around this age.

On Saturdays, he made trips from Monroeville to the nearby city of Mobile on the Gulf Coast,
and at one point submitted a short story, "Old Mrs. Busybody", to a children's writing contest
sponsored by the Mobile Press Register. Capote received recognition for his early work from
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards in 1936.

In 1933, he moved to New York City to live with his mother and her second husband, Joseph
Capote, a Cuban-born textile broker, who adopted him as his stepson and renamed him
Truman García Capote. However, Joseph was convicted of embezzlement and shortly
afterwards, when his income crashed, the family was forced to leave Park Avenue.[citation needed]
Of his early days, Capote related, "I began writing really sort of seriously when I was about
eleven. I say seriously in the sense that like other kids go home and practice the violin or the
piano or whatever, I used to go home from school every day, and I would write for about
three hours. I was obsessed by it." In 1935, he attended the Trinity School in New York City.
He then attended St. Joseph Military Academy. In 1939, the Capote family moved to
Greenwich, Connecticut, and Truman attended Greenwich High School, where he wrote for
both the school's literary journal, The Green Witch, and the school newspaper. When they
returned to New York City in 1942, he attended the Franklin School, an Upper West Side
private school now known as the Dwight School, and graduated in 1943.That was the end of
his formal education.

While still attending Franklin in 1943, Capote began working as a copyboy in the art
department at The New Yorker, a job he held for two years before being fired for angering
poet Robert Frost. Years later, he reminisced, "Not a very grand job, for all it really involved
was sorting cartoons and clipping newspapers. Still, I was fortunate to have it, especially since
I was determined never to set a studious foot inside a college classroom. I felt that either one
was or wasn't a writer, and no combination of professors could influence the outcome. I still
think I was correct, at least in my own case." He left his job to live with relatives in Alabama
and began writing his first novel, Summer Crossing.

Friendship with Harper Lee

Capote based the character of Idabel in Other Voices, Other Rooms on his Monroeville
neighbor and best friend, Harper Lee. Capote once acknowledged this: "Mr. and Mrs. Lee,
Harper Lee's mother and father, lived very near. She was my best friend. Did you ever read
her book, To Kill a Mockingbird? I'm a character in that book, which takes place in the same
small town in Alabama where we lived. Her father was a lawyer, and she and I used to go to
trials all the time as children. We went to the trials instead of going to the movies." After the
Pulitzer Prize was awarded to Lee in 1961 and Capote published In Cold Blood in 1966, the
authors became increasingly distant from each other.

Short story phase

Capote began writing short stories from around the age of eight. In 2013, 14 unpublished
stories written when Capote was a teenager were discovered in the New York Public Library
Archives by the Swiss publisher Peter Haag. These were published by Random House in 2015
under the title "The Early Stories of Truman Capote".

Between 1943 and 1946, Capote wrote a continual flow of short fiction, including "Miriam",
"My Side of the Matter", and "Shut a Final Door" (for which he won the O. Henry Award in
1948, at the age of 24). His stories were published in both literary quarterlies and well-known
popular magazines, including The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Bazaar, Harper's Magazine,
Mademoiselle, The New Yorker, Prairie Schooner and Story. In June 1945, "Miriam" was
published by Mademoiselle and went on to win a prize, Best First-Published Story, in 1946. In
the spring of 1946, Capote was accepted at Yaddo, the artists and writers colony at Saratoga
Springs, New York. (He later endorsed Patricia Highsmith as a Yaddo candidate, and she
wrote Strangers on a Train while she was there.)

During an interview for The Paris Review in 1957, Capote said this of his short story
technique:
Since each story presents its own technical problems, obviously one can't generalize about
them on a two-times-two-equals-four basis. Finding the right form for your story is simply to
realize the most natural way of telling the story. The test of whether or not a writer has
divined the natural shape of his story is just this: after reading it, can you imagine it
differently, or does it silence your imagination and seem to you absolute and final? As an
orange is final. As an orange is something nature has made just right.

In Cold Blood
The "new book", In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences (1965),
was inspired by a 300-word article that ran on page 39 of The New York Times on November 16, 1959
(reproduced below). The story described the unexplained murder of the Clutter family in rural
Holcomb, Kansas

Death
Capote died in Bel Air, Los Angeles, on August 25, 1984, age 59. According to the coroner's report,
the cause of death was "liver disease complicated by phlebitis and multiple drug intoxication. He died
at the home of his old friend Joanne Carson, ex-wife of late-night TV host Johnny Carson, on whose
program Capote had been a frequent guest. Gore Vidal responded to news of Capote's death by
calling it "a wise career move"

Truman Capote

Truman Capote, 1980

Truman Streckfus Persons
Born September 30, 1924
New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
August 25, 1984 (aged 59)
Died Bel Air, Los Angeles, California,
U.S.
 Westwood Memorial Park
Resting place
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation Artist, author, actor
Education Timothy Dwight School
Period 1943–84
Literary
movement Southern Gothic

In Cold Blood, Breakfast at

Notable works
Tiffany's
Partner Jack Dunphy

Signature