Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.
–Capote
Throughout his career, Truman Capote remained one of America’s most controversial and colorful authors, combining literary genius with a penchant for the glittering world of high society. Though he wrote only a handful of books, his prose styling was impeccable, and his insight into the psychology of human desire was extraordinary. His flamboyant and well-documented lifestyle has often overshadowed his gifts as a writer, but over time Capote’s work will outlive the celebrity.
Born in New Orleans in 1924, Capote was abandoned by his mother and raised by his elderly aunts and cousins in Monroeville, Alabama. As a child he lived a solitary and lonely existence, turning to writing for solace. 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 his mid-teens, Capote was sent to New York to live with his mother and her new husband. Disoriented by life in the city, he dropped out of school, and at age seventeen, got a job with The New Yorker magazine. Within a few years he was writing regularly for an assortment of publications. One of his stories, “Miriam,” attracted the attention of publisher Bennett Cerf, who signed the young writer to a contract with Random House. Capote’s first book, Other Voices, Other Rooms, was published in 1948. Other Voices, Other Rooms received instant notoriety for its fine prose, its frank discussion of homosexual themes, and, perhaps most of all, for its erotically suggestive cover photograph of Capote himself.
With literary success came social celebrity. The young writer was lionized by the high society elite, and was seen at the best parties, clubs, and restaurants. He answered accusations of frivolousness by claiming he was researching a future book. His short novel, Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958), took much of its inspiration from these experiences. With the publication of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the subsequent hit film staring Audrey Hepburn, Capote’s popularity and place among the upper crust was assured. His ambition, however, was to be great as well as popular, and so he began work on a new experimental project that he imagined would revolutionize the field of journalism.
In 1959, Capote set about creating a new literary genre — the non-fiction novel. In Cold Blood (1966), the book that most consider his masterpiece, is the story of the 1959 murder of the four members of a Kansas farming family, the Clutters. Capote left his jet-set friends and went to Kansas to delve into the small-town life and record the process by which they coped with this loss. During his stay, the two murderers were caught, and Capote began an involved interview with both. For six years, he became enmeshed in the lives of both the killers and the townspeople, taking thousands of pages of notes. Of In Cold Blood, Capote said, “This book was an important event for me. While writing it, I realized I just might have found a solution to what had always been my greatest creative quandary. I wanted to produce a journalistic novel, something on a large scale that would have the credibility of fact, the immediacy of film, the depth and freedom of prose, and the precision of poetry.” In Cold Blood sold out instantly, and became one of the most talked about books of its time. An instant classic, In Cold Blood brought its author millions of dollars and a fame unparalleled by nearly any other literary author since.
To celebrate the book’s success, Capote threw what many called the “Party of the Century,” the famous “Black and White Ball.” This masked ball, at New York’s elegant Plaza Hotel, was to be the pinnacle of both his literary endeavors and his popularity. Overwhelmed by the lifestyles of the rich and famous, Capote began to work on a project exploring the intimate details of his friends. He received a large advance for a book which was to be called Answered Prayers (after Saint Theresa of Avila’s saying that answered prayers cause more tears than those that remain unanswered). The book was to be a biting and largely factual account of the glittering world in which he moved. The publication of the first few chapters in Esquire magazine in 1975 caused a major scandal. Columnist Liz Smith explained, “He wrote what he knew, which is what people always tell writers to do, but he just didn’t wait till they were dead to do it.”
With these first short publications Capote found that many of his close friends and acquaintances shut him off completely. Though he claimed to be working on Answered Prayers (which many imagined would be his greatest work), the shock of the initial negative reactions sent him into a spiral of drug and alcohol use, during which time he wrote very little of any quality. When Capote died in 1984, at the age of fifty-nine, he left behind no evidence of any continued progress on Answered Prayers. Though many feel that Capote did not live up to the promise of his early work, it is clear from what he did write that he was an artist of exquisite talent and vision. With both his fiction and his non-fiction, he created a body of work that will continue to move readers and inspire writers for years.
My school is making me do this, but the article is very interesting……………….Truman is very talented……….
But you people complain about weird things……..I mean Geez!
its ok to me if he was gay because im gay
Guys and gals I really don’t think it matters if he was gay or not, Yeah I am a christian but really haters we live in a modern time. I could honestly care less if you disagree but God loves gays just as much as you and Jesus would go to gay bars like he went to slums in cities and preach to every one. You guys who day God hates gays just need to sit down and shut up. it’s you guys that make him mad not them. Yeah Capote was gay but he was a genius ahead of his time and deserved to be recognized today. It is truly a sad day when the education of some people is so limited, that they don’t even listen to logic I mean you aren’t five. Pull the fingers out of your ears and stop yelling LA LA LA and listen to the people who know something.
to CDfromKY: My thoughts exactly. It’s alarming that on a Truman Capote web page almost none of the comments are by anyone who has read his work. Perhaps those people were doing something else, like reading, instead of writing inane misspelt self-interested white noise.
Hardly anything is said about his incredible command of prose, which is why he was famous in the first place; he was one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century, to see him reduced to words like gay and hot is embarrassing. I wish I’d been born seventy years ago when I see my generation writing sentences like the above.
For those who are wanting to know more about In Cold Blood, pl. watch the movie ‘Capote’ directed by B Miller. It would be equally informative for those who are researching or working towards writing an article on “Truman Capote”.
It’s odd that Capote biographies neglect to mention his religion – and no one seems to ask!
Into which religion was Truman Capote born?
Did he profess any religion as an adult?
Capote was born in ‘24 and In Cold Blood (ICB) was released in 1965 so he was 41–which makes him an “old” “person”? What standard is being used for age? On the other hand his writings were polished, well writing and strategized in plot, narrative, content, and delivery. This guy was a showman of letters. Even Norman Mailer and Bill Buckley appreciated his parallel constructs and many intriguing metaphors reflective of a wide range of reading of fine authors and chroniclers, such that Capote found appropriate license to coin the term “reportage” for ICB.
I think back on those cool evening perch up on my azedarach tree and making up worlds just as Streckfus Persons might have done as a young dreamy boy growing up in Monroeville.
What do you think about that, Miss Bobbit?
Very nice post and right to the point. I am not sure if this is actually the best place to ask but do you folks have any ideea where to hire some professional writers? Thanks in advance :)
Excuse me, but America is not the whole world, so why assume that only Americans will ever visit this article?
And as people have already pointed out, what does it matter if he was gay or not? He was a slightly strange but brilliant writer.
Looks like Capote was a rebirth of Oscarwilde .
he sounds intresting..
but why so you people(everyone that has commented basicly) criticize either the author one another or his sexual orientation? it doesnt matter. The comments are for the article.. And why i am doing this for school. its not like i didnt take the time to read the article and the comments. If you are going to say something make it worthwhile.i am including me in this. We all need to get a life.
thank.
have anyone of you people calling him gay ever read anyone of his books or short stories? hmmm.
I am doing a research paper for my Senior Comp class. Our class is doing research papers over serial killers and murders, and I chose the Clutter family murders, because I think In Cold Blood is a very good book.
People should really learn how to spell before writing ignorant things about an author you know nothing about! Just read the article and don’t leave unintelligent comments. That’s what The Facebook is for.
Sincerely,
The Intelligent One.
i think that truman was a really great person and his books really helped me in my life
He promised to share the royalties of his book, In Cold Blood, with the condemned men of the Clutter murders. Did this happen and if so I assume the royaties went to their families after their execution?
Also was it true he become emotionally involved with one the killers, Perry Smith?
Looking at, some of these comments makes me more and more depressed. I would hope PBS would be the last place where thinking people can get away from stupidity,people supposed to comment on Truman Capote’s writings not his sexuality or his looks or his religon! Have any of you morons read any his works if you have nothing intelligent to write let only the insightful write down comments!
A great writer indeed. I agree with the preceding writer (El) & her comments. It sums it up quite adequately.
Ciao,
B.Mc
In cold blood was Capote’s way of making himself the topic of discussion for years to come. His immortality. First, I appreciate the book and honor the genre that he tried to achieve. He wanted to merge reporting with the amazing prose that he was well known for. However….. How can he say that he achieved this when a lot of the “facts” that he used were not always true. I am not saying that to put him down because personally I think he was a genius, instead he should have said he started the movement. He was a very troubled man and I think it may have to do with his childhood and what happened not what his religion or sexual preference was. I think Capote would have even made up a religion to get peoples attention. It’s just the way the man was…like I said… A genius ;)
In Cold Blood is factual “tour de force” that took nearly a decade to write and broke Capote emotionally. During his research, he got to know the murdered Clutter family intimately by interviewing their family and friends. He also got to know the murders on intimate terms, again by sitting with them for many days in interview settings, including being with them as they were being hanged. Yes, he saw them executed. And that changed him, scarred him emotionally, and some say, made him implode in a furious state of self-destruction.
Capote also literally lived their lives — both the Clutter family’s and the murders’ — in reconstructing a horrific crime in a narrative voice usually reserved for literary novelists. Capote blended his superb gift of telling a story with lyricism and with factual events. Literary, journalism, and legal historians have all verified Capote’s work – and other than finding fault one small area of mistaken fact, specifically to whom the Clutter’s daughter’s horse was sold to after she was murdered (Capote wrote it was a Mennonite farmer when, it fact, it was a non-religious farmer), he was spot on.
Prior to writing In Cold Blood, Capote lived a charmed life with the rich and famous; he was like Paris Hilton, but with extreme talent and incredibly disarming “parlor smarts.” He was friends with everyone and could pry the deepest, darkest secrets from a pet rock.
The reason why the book was banned in several states, is because in reviewing and illustrating the facts with his dynamic prose — specifically the relationship the United Methodist Clutter’s family’s daughter had with a Catholic boyfriend, and the facts and fantasies of the two murders, who were far from pristine having been raised in rough circumstances — well, quite frankly, the facts apparently upset a handful of people who appear to wish to sugar coat the world with fantasy. The facts of the Clutter family – and more pointedly the killers themselves — insulted their fine sensibilities and they wanted the book banned — unsuccessfully, I might add.
Here in Texas the book is not banned and my AP english class is actually spending a semester on it. The reason it is banned in some states is because of the grusome scenes invilving the murders, hangings, etc. But in my opinion it shpould not be banned.
They shot the movie in black and white because they wanted a documentary look. They felt that monocolor would better suggest the 1950s and also be fittingly depressing. Very shadowy and harsh lighting throughout. I saw Mr. Capote once in New York. We passed each other crossing First Avenue. He wore pink sneakers and was drunk. His protege, Kate Harrington, was steering him along looking very worried. He was jabbering about something nonstop. He was headed toward Manny Wolf’s, his favorite bar. He was looped enough but apparently didn’t think so. He and I went to the same cheap barber. He belonged to a health club in my neighborhood, and I could’ve seen him there many times had I joined. But I heard that he was cruising at the club, and I didn’t want to see that.
That’s one of three times I’ve seen a genius in the flesh and up close: Mr. Capote, Pope John Paul II, and Richard Nixon.
There is a museum dedicated to the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, where the murders occurred. I imagine some of Mr. Capote’s souvenirs are there.
As for the house….. It now belongs to an old couple. If you pay the fee, they will give you a tour of the house and point out all the horror spots. Bobby Rupp, Nancy Clutter’s boyfriend, still lives in Holcomb and occasionally visits the museum.
The prosecutor who sent the murderers to the gallows is buried close to the Clutters in a town cemetery. The headstones are bleak, with only names and dates.
Mr. Capote was one of the greatest prose stylists in America since, perhaps, Raymond Chandler. Or maybe since Poe.
One final note. We now know a little more about Smith and Hickock, the murderers. It appears they slaughtered another family–this one in Florida–before being captured. HIckock wanted to rape Nancy Clutter, but Smith wouldn’t let him. He did let him rape the mother of the Florida family. Smith and Hickock cannot be explained outside the concept of evil. There’s no way to account for their nonchalant and useless killings. And that’s one of the themes in Capote’s book. If you don’t believe in evil, read the book and see what you think afterwards.
Haha so many people have requested the author for this, I too am using this for a research paper!
although mr. capote was gay he was no different from us
Geeez…..After reading some of these comments, I’m almost glad I didn’t discover Capote while I was still young. The bottom line: Capote is a gifted writer whose prose is lovely enough to read aloud. The rest is fun to specualte but no more than superficial chit-chat.
I’m reading this article because I just saw the movie, “A Christmas Memory,” on TV last night. I remember reading this story of Capote’s MANY years ago but it left such an impression on me I still recalled it at least 50 years later. How many authors can you say that about?
Capote was a very complex person — immensely talented, immensely insecure and immensely spiteful. He idolized beautiful women like Babe Paley and Marilyn Monroe, got them to confide in him and them mocked them in print. Then he wondered why many of his former friends stopped returning his calls.
For a smart guy he was remarkably clueless.
I used to think he would have been happier if he had been born a gorgeous girl but he probably would have taken to drinking and drugging when his looks faded and the end result would have been the same: bitterness, lonliness and a too-early death.
“In Cold Blood” is a remarkable work, despite the fact that the characters of the victims and the lawman are prett-much one dimensional. The killers, on the other hand, almost leap off the page they’re so real. I get the feeling that Capote empathized with society’s underrdogs and ousiders more than he did on upstanding, pillar of the community types.
Truman Capote was a very complex person. While many remember him for his writing, many more remember him as a nasty drunk who always felt like the world was against him.
Whatever he had, it was likely true genius because he was not well educated and his opinions often reflected this fact. He was often invited onto talk shows because he could almost always be relied on to say something totally stupid and ill-informed. To some he was the quintessence of the adage “a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing”. He was also a real trash talker and nasty gossip so talk show hosts loved him (as long as he was reasonably sober).
It’s hard to judge the value of In Cold Blood now. It was very cutting edge in its day but by 2012 standards it’s pretty commonplace. And many more revealing ‘docu-dramas’ have been written since. But what is true though is that it pretty well took everything out of him that he had … he never really wrote anything after. And given that he was only 41 when it was published, that is a real shame.
(To give you an idea of how self-centred he could be … it was rumoured that he hoped that Smith and Hickock would be hung and hung quickly so that his book could be published. The concern was that the publication of his book could compromise their appeals and so he wanted them dead. And fast. Unlike most artists he was not opposed to capital punishment largely because if they were dead he’d have fewer problems publishing his book)
I don’t understand why so many people have left ridiculous comments. Have a little respect for a deceased person. At least for one who wrote a wonderfully entertaining book. ‘In Cold Blood’ was one of the first course required books i honestly enjoyed.