Truman Capote

The short stories of Truman Capote are connected to his childhood experiences in Alabama. Truman capote was an American born writer who wrote non- fiction, short stories, novels and plays. All of his literary works have been perceived as literary classics. The tones of some of his stories are slightly gothic. His most famous short story is Children on Their Birthdays.

His work shows the occasional over writing, the twilit Gothic subject matter, and the masochistic uses of horror traditional in the fiction of the boy author ever since the eighteen-year-old Lewis wrote his Monk 150 years ago. But Capote has, in addition, an ability to

control tone, an honest tenderness toward those of his characters he can understand (children and psychotics), and a splendid sense of humor-seldom remarked upon. (Fielder www.wikipedia.org)

Truman Capote was born on September 30, 1924 in New Orleans, Louisiana. His whole name was Truman Streckfus Persons. At the time of his birth his mother, 17 year old, Lillie Mae Faulk was in a troubling relationship with his father, Archulus Persons. Unfortunately their relationship ended four years later. At this point of Truman's life his family can only be described as dysfunctional.

After his parents were divorced Truman was sent to live with his aunt's house in Monroeville, Alabama. Truman's love of writing began at a very young age. At the age of ten he won a children's writing contest for his short story, "Old Mr. Busybody". In 1933, Truman moved to New York City to live with his mother and his stepfather, Joseph Garcia Capote. There he was adopted by Joseph and took Capote as his last name.

In 1939, Capote and his family moved to Greenwich, Connecticut, where he attended Greenwich High School. Growing up Capote had a formal type of education. Truman developed an amazing literary style that's still studied and imitated. Even though he himself was a terrible student in school and only cared about his English classes. However, he wasn't interested with school.

So after graduating high school he decided to move back to New York and pursue a career in writing. Truman's first job as a writer came when he was eighteen. He was to work at The New Yorker as a copyboy (www.teenreads.com). His early stories were published in Harper' Bazaar. This helped to establish his literary reputation when he was in his twenties (Price v). Capote was never married and had no children. The one thing other than his writing that made Capote unique was the fact that he was homosexual. His partner of 35 years was Jack Dunphy, a gay novelist and playwright.

Capote was quite the socialite. He established high-society friends. He also held fancy "Hollywood" type parties at studio 54. "Hollywood" type of parties meaning these parties there were filled of alcohol and fueled by many different types of drugs. Due to too much partying, Capote began a victim of drug and alcohol abuse throughout most of the 1970s.

His problem with alcohol abuse became public when he was arrested for drunk driving. In 1982, he was told his brain was shrinking and that he had only six months to live. Truman died of alcohol/drug abuse on August 23, 1984 in Los Angeles, California. (www.nytimes.com/books)

As an author he was widely praised for his style of writing after the publication of his earlier stories. Most of his short stories are based on childhood reflections. For example "A Christmas Memory" and "The Thanksgiving Visitor" are based on the time he spent at his aunt's house when he was a young boy. The most influential people in Capote's life were his relatives. Both short stories were successful enough to made into movies.

The literary work that propelled him to fame was Breakfast at Tiffany's. It was published in 1958. This novella was later made into a movie starring Audrey Hepburn in 1968. Capote's literary works are direct results of influences in his life. Another literary work that enhanced Capote's popularity as a great author was In Cold Blood

. It was based on a six year study of the murder of a rural Kansas family by two drifters. After reading an article about the murders Capote felt compelled to write about it. His novel had mixed reviews but no one could deny that it was a new way of writing about true events.

Although in the fifties there were promises of a new journalism and early in the sixties newspapermen experimented with fictional techniques, Truman Capote's In Cold Blood lent a new seriousness to the talk about a 'higher journalism. His rhetoric of originality neglects to mention a whole tradition of true crime books he found it convenient to ignore. - John Hollowell

In Cold Blood was serialized in The New Yorker in 1965 and published in 1966. It was labeled as being a non-fiction novel.

In Cold Blood brought him literary acclaim and became a best seller world wide.

We are talking, in the long run, about responsibility; the debt that a writer arguably owes to those who provide him-down to the last autobiographical parentheses-with his subject matter and his livelihood ...For the first time an influential writer of the rank has been placed with in a position of privileged intimacy with the criminals about to die, and -in my view-done less than he might have to save them. The focus narrows sharply down on priorities: does the work come first, or does life? [Tynan (454)]

In Cold Blood was later made into a movie in 1967. After the success of In Cold Blood Capote decided to write a tell all book entitled Answered Prayers. Unfortunately