Truman Capote

Born September 30, 1924 (New Orleans, Louisiana)

Died August 25, 1984 (Los Angeles, California)

Author

Truman Capote was an author who became famous as much for his eccentric personality as for his writing. Capote initially wrote dark, mystical fiction but later shifted toward nonfiction. He preferred writing more about people and places than about issues or ideas. Capote's professional reputation was established when he helped create a new literary form known as the nonfiction novel in 1966 with his book In Cold Blood about the brutal murder of a Kansas family. It is a style of writing that combines literature, with its creative license, and journalism, which adheres to the facts.

"We will never know the reasons for what eventually happened, why he did what he did, but I still hurt thinking of it. It was such a waste."

Persons to Capote

Truman Capote was born Truman Streckfus Persons on September 30, 1924, in New Orleans, Louisiana. His mother, Lillie Mae Faulk, and his father, Archulus Persons, had a stormy relationship finally divorcing in 1931. Lillie Mae left Truman with relatives in a rural Alabama town called Monroeville when he was almost six years old.

Surrounded by adults, Truman spent a great deal of time alone and began writing stories. Lillie Mae moved to New
York and changed her name to Nina. In 1932 she married Joseph Garcia Capote, a wealthy Cuban American businessman. Truman went to New York to live with his mother and stepfather in 1935 when he was ten years old. Joseph adopted him that year and his name changed to Truman Garcia Capote.

Truman attended Episcopal Trinity School, a private boys' school in New York, for three years. He was not a good student and his parents switched him to St. John's Military Academy in Ossining for three months. When the family moved to Greenwich, Connecticut, Truman attended Greenwich High School. There his English teacher, Catherine Wood, recognized his talent and encouraged his writing. He dropped out of school at seventeen but completed his senior year in 1942 after the family returned to New York. While finishing his diploma, Truman found a part-time job as a copy boy at the New Yorker magazine.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

After graduating, Capote moved back to Monroeville and began working on an autobiographical book called Other Voices, Other Rooms. During the three years he spent on the project, Capote continued to write and submit other stories for publication. They began to appear in magazines, winning him several prizes. Capote's literary career was assured in 1948 when Random House published Other Voices, Other Rooms.

The success of Other Voices, Other Rooms brought Capote invitations to the best parties, clubs, and restaurants by the time he was twenty-five years old. He loved celebrities and the life of the socially prominent. Capote used these experiences with his new circle of friends to write the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's, which was published in 1958. The book became an instant hit and was made into a highly successful Hollywood movie, starring Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993) as the main character, Holly Golightly.

Capote experimented as a playwright, essay journalist, and screenplay writer with varying degrees of success. He even wrote a book and the lyrics for a musical comedy called House of Flowers in 1954. With his fame came endless invitations to dinners, parties, and social engagements. He was always invited because he was witty, charming, and loved to gossip. During these years he enjoyed the glamour and travel, but he also developed an addiction to alcohol and drugs. They would eventually take their toll on his health and his work.

In Cold Blood

Capote had been researching the topic of his next book when he came across a headline in the New York Times in 1959. A wealthy and prominent rancher, his wife, and teenage son and daughter had been brutally murdered in Holcomb, a suburb of Garden City, Kansas. Capote made arrangements to do a series on the murders for the New Yorker and within days had moved to Kansas to write his book.

The result of Capote's investigation was In Cold Blood, a new type of novel involving true crime (see sidebar). Capote divided the book into four sections, moving the narrative back and forth between the criminals and their victims, and then between the detectives and the criminals. Capote used film techniques of flashbacks and close-ups to create maximum tension in the novel.

In Cold Blood was first serialized in the New Yorker and then released in book form by Random House in 1965. It sold out and created quite a sensation before being produced as a Hollywood movie in 1967. Capote celebrated his success by throwing a party at New York's Plaza Hotel in 1966, inviting five hundred friends to attend.

True Crime

Ever since there have been criminals, there has been public interest in their crimes. People want to know why other people behave as they do, especially when it involves murder. There is widespread interest in what motivates killers to act, as well as curiosity about the details of what happens to the victims. The public will follow a case from the initial investigation by law enforcement officials, to the resulting trial and ultimate sentencing of the accused.

In the early twenty-first century, several television programs feature reenactments of actual criminal cases that have been solved. On these shows participating law enforcement officials and survivors are interviewed to show how criminals are brought to justice. Some programs give details of unsolved cases, asking viewers for help in apprehending offenders, while other television programs present fictionalized accounts of how modern technology is used in real crime scene investigations, especially for homicides.

Internet web sites and daily newspaper accounts follow current cases of true crime that capture the public's attention because they are either close to home or sensational in nature. During the 1990s, media coverage of the latest killing by a celebrity,or one that was especially gruesome, created such public interest that a new type of book emerged. These written accounts give instant gratification to people who want to read about existing true crimes, but are often published before trial results are even in.

In 1965 Truman Capote helped introduce a new style of writing, which is now called "literary nonfiction." His novel, In Cold Blood, was based on facts, but he did not deliver them in a journalistic fashion. Instead he used a storytelling technique that made the book read like suspense fiction. Capote spent six years studying the 1959 murder of the Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas. He lived with the townspeople, interviewing them over the years, while he recorded how they coped with the loss of four members of their community.

Capote maintained the suspense of his story by first talking about the community's response to the murders. He kept the details about how the Clutters died until after the killers were captured. Capote interviewed the two young drifters who confessed and were tried for the murders. He devoted the final chapter of his book to giving extensive details about their trial and prison life. Capote developed an emotional attachment to the criminals during his time interviewing them, and he witnessed their hanging at the Kansas state penitentiary in April 1965. Capote's in-depth novel was a great success and the popularity of true crime stories increased as a result.

For several years after In Cold Blood was released, Truman was seen as an authority on the criminal justice system. Journalists sought his opinion on prisons and capital punishment. In 1976 he wrote Then It All Came Down, which also dealt with crime and criminal justice.

Fall from grace

Capote earned large advances for his next project, a book and movie deal of a projected novel called Answered Prayers. The book was supposed to be a gossipy account of his jet-setting lifestyle and the famous people he knew. The first few chapters caused quite a scandal when they appeared in a 1975 copy of Esquire magazine. Capote was socially shunned by many of his former friends and acquaintances and the book was never finished.

The alienation sent Capote into a downward spiral of drug and alcohol abuse that lasted throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s. His substance abuse problems affected his writing but Capote continued to make the rounds on television talk shows. His flamboyant personality was still considered a novelty in the entertainment business. He even made a cameo appearance in the murder mystery movie Murder By Death (1976). In 1977, he gave a reading of his works at a Maryland booking, but became so incoherent he had to be led off the stage.

After suffering from hallucinations and blackouts, Capote tried Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and rehabilitation hospitals but always went back to his old habits. Shortly before his sixtieth birthday, Capote arranged to spend several weeks in Los Angeles with his friend and longtime supporter Joanne Carson. He died at her home on August 25, 1984.

For More Information

Books

Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences. New York: Random House, 1965.

Clarke, Gerald. Capote: A Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.

Garson, Helen S. Truman Capote. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1980.

Moates, Marianne M. A Bridge of Childhood:Truman Capote's Southern Years. New York: Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 1989.

Web Site

"American Masters: Truman Capote." Public Broadcasting Service.http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/capote_t.html (accessed on August 15, 2004).