Truman Capote

Truman Capote

Major Works

Novels

Capote published his first novel in 1948, Other Voices, Other Rooms, when he was twenty three years old. In 1965, consuming more than six years of his life, In Cold Blood was published.

Short Stories

In 1980, Music for Chameleons was published. In 1945, Miriam was published in the magazine Mademoiselle.

Plays and Screenplays

Capote wrote the screenplay for The Innocents, filmed by Henry James. The Grass Harp was turned into a play, but not successful.

Biography

Capote was born in New Orleans on September 30, 1924 to Archulus Persons and Lillie Mae Faulk (Persons) with his birth name being Truman Streckfus Persons. He later adopted the Capote surname when his mother divorced Archulus Persons and remarried Joe Capote. Before she committed suicide, Capote and his mother both admitted that she was not suited for motherhood. In the late 1970’s, Capote was treated for a drug and alcohol addiction and suffered from tic doloroux. Capote’s best friend growing up was his neighbor, Nelle Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee based Dill Harris’s character upon Capote. He had previously based the character of Idabel Tompkins in Other Voices, Other Rooms on Nelle Harper Lee. At the age of seventeen, Capote went to work for two years at The New Yorker. During the two years he wrote his first unpublished novel, Summer Crossing.

Awards

Capote won an O. Henry Memorial Award in 1946 for his short story Miriam.

Timeline

In 1975, he allowed Esquire magazine to print portions of his unfinished novel, Answered Prayers. In 1966 Capote hosted a masked ball for approximately five hundred of his closest friends in New York at the Plaza Hotel.

Works Cited

Krebs, Albin. “Truman Capote Is Dead at 59; Novelist of Style and Clarity.” New York Times 26 Aug. 1984, sec. L1+