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 American
novelist, short story writer and playwright. Capote gained international
fame with his "non-fiction novel" IN COLD BLOOD (1966), an account
of a real life crime in which an entire family was murdered by two
sociopaths. The Louisiana-Mississippi-Alabama area provided the
setting for much of Capote's fiction.
She took a bite of apple, and said: "Tell me something you've
written. The story part."
"That's one of the troubles. They're not the kind of stories you
can tell."
"Too dirty?"
"Maybe I'll let you read one some time."
"Whisky and apples go together. Fix me a drink, darling. Then
you can read me a story yourself."
(from Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1958)
Capote was born in New Orleans as the son of a salesman and a 16-year-old
beauty queen. His father worked as a clerk for a steamboat company.
He never stuck at any job for long, and was always leaving home
in search for new opportunities. The marriage gradually disintegrated,
and his parents divorced when he was four. Young Capote was brought
up in Monroeville. He lived some years with relatives, one of whom
became the model for the loving, elderly spinster in several Capote's
novels, stories, and plays. When his mother married again, this
time a well-to-do businessman, Capote moved to New York, and adopted
his stepfather's surname.
In his childhood Capote made friends with Harper Lee, who portrayed
him as Dill in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Capote started
to write stories when he was only eight. He attended the Trinity
School and St. John's Academy in New York, and the public schools
of Greenwich, Connecticut, but ended his formal schooling at the
age of seventeen. He found work at the New Yorker, and attracted
attention with his eccentric style of dress.
In 1946 Capote won O.Henry award for his novel Shut a Final Door
and published his early stories in quality magazines. His first
novel, OTHER VOICES, OTHER ROOMS (1948), depicted a boy growing
up in the Deep South. The protagonist falls into a relationship
with a decadent transvestite. The book gained a wide success and
arose controversy because of its treatment of homosexuality. During
this time Capote had already established his fame among the cultural
circles as the thin voiced promising young writer, who could brighten
up parties with his sharp and clever remarks.
 Next
year Capote went to Europe, where he wrote fiction and non-fiction.
Among his major works was a profile of Marlon Brando. Capote's travels
accompanying a tour of Porgy and Bess in the Soviet Union
produced THE MUSES ARE HEARD, which subtly mocked the whole presentation
of the play. His European years also marked the beginnings of his
work for the theatre and films. In 1949 appeared A TREE OF NIGHT,
which gathered together short stories, which Capote had published
in Harper's Bazaar, Mademoiselle, and other magazines.
In the 1950s Capote wrote THE HOUSE OF FLOWERS, a musical set in
West Indies bordello. Capote's lyrical style, melancholy and whimsical
humour marked his novel THE GRASS HARP (1951), in which a young
boy and his elderly cousin defy the conventions of a materialistic
society, but also discover that some compromise in necessary in
people are to live together in a community. The book was adapted
into screen in 1996, starring Piper Laurie, Sissy Spacek, and Walter
Matthau. Capote's first important film work was collaboration with
John Huston on Beat the Devil (1954).
Following return to the United States, Copote wrote BREAKFAST AT
TIFFANYS (1958), in which Holly Golightly, a young woman, comes
to New York seeking for happiness. The narrator is an aspiring writer
who follows Holly's life, filled with colourful characters. "What
I've found does the most good is just to get into a taxi and go
to Tiffany's. It calms me down right away, the quietness and the
proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there..."
The book was made into a successful film. Increasing preoccupation
with journalism formed basis for Capote's bestseller In Cold
Blood, a pioneering work of documentary novel or "non-fiction
novel". The work started from an article in The New York Times
about the murder of a wealthy family in Holcomb, Kansas. Sponsored
by the magazine Capote interviewed with Harper Lee local people
to recreate the lives of both the murderers and their victims. The
research and writing took six years to finish. Capote used neither
tape recorder nor note pad, but emptied his interviews and impressions
in notebooks at the end of the day. Capote also recorded for his
book last days of the death-obsessed criminals. (See Norman Mailer's
journalistic works The Armies of the Nigh, Miami and the Siege of
Chicago, Of Fire on the Moon.)
"I didn't want to harm the man. I thought he was a very nice
gentleman. Soft-spoken. I thought so right up to the moment I
cut his throat."
(from In Cold Blood)
 After
the publication of In Cold Blood, Capote planned to write
a Proustian novel to be called 'Answered Prayers,' but problems
with drink and drugs, and disputes with other writers, such as Gore
Vidal, exhausted Capote's creative energies, and he never completed
the work. Three stories from novel appeared in Esquire in the 1970s,
revealing that Capote's wittiness had turned into gossipy bitterness.
In 1986 the stories were republished as ANSWERED PRAYERS: THE UNTITLED
NOVEL, which diminished Capote's reputation further. The unfinished
autobiographical book followed the career of a writer of uncertain
parentage to literary saloons, and presented such real-life as Colette,
the Duchess of Windsor, Montgomery Clift, and Tallulah Bankhead.
Among Capote's other works is the classic A CHRISTMAS MEMORY (1966),
an autobiographical account of a seven-year-old boy, his cousin,
and an eccentric old lady. The story has been a continual favourite
as a television play. MUSIC FOR CHAMELEONS (1981) was a collection
of short pieces, stories, interviews, and conversations published
in various magazines. Capote died in Los Angeles, California, on
August 26, 1984, of liver disease complicated by phlebitis and multiple
drug intoxication.
For further reading: Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood":
A Critical Handbook, ed. by Irving Malin (1968); The Worlds of
Truman Capote by William L. Nance (1970); Sextet: T.S. Eliot and
Truman Capote and Others by J. M. Brinnin (1982); Truman Capote:
A Biography by Gerald Clarke (1988); Truman Capote: A Study of
the Short Fiction by H. Garson (1992); Truman Capote's Southern
Years by Marianne M. Moates (1996); Truman Capote: In Which Various
Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances, and Detractors Recall His Turbulent
Career by George Plimpton (1997); Critical Essays on Truman Capote,
ed. by Joseph J. Waldmeir (1999); The Critical Response to Truman
Capote ed. by Joseph J. Waldmeir (1999) - Quote: "In California
everyone goes to therapist, is a therapist, or is a therapist
going to a therapist." - See also: Harper Lee (Capote's childhood
friend); Carson McCullers.
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