Author Profile: Truman Capote

Truman Capote

BIO

Truman Capote, born in New Orleans, LA., September 30, 1924, and died on August 25, 1984, was a Southern Gothic novelist, journalist, and celebrated man-about-town. He was widely hailed as a stylist after publication of his earliest writings. These include his novel of alienated youth, OTHER VOICES, OTHER ROOMS (1948), the Gothic short stories in A TREE OF NIGHT (1949), and the lighter novel THE GRASS HARP (1951; play, 1952). The novella BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (1958; film, 1961) introduced the charming, hedonistic Holly Golightly as a heroine. Childhood reflections formed the basis of two short stories that were adapted for television: "A Christmas Memory" (1956) and "The Thanksgiving Visitor" (1968). Capote's nonfiction novel IN COLD BLOOD (1966; film, 1967) was based on a 6-year study of the murder of a rural Kansas family by two young drifters. Capote wrote about the jet set in THE DOGS BARK: Public People and Private Places (1973). ANSWERED PRAYERS, an unfinished novel, was published posthumously in 1987.

--- Truman Capote was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 30, 1924.

--- His full name was Truman Streckfus Persons.

--- In 1931 his parents divorced and a year later his mother remarried to Joseph Garcia Capote.

--- He changed his name to Truman Garcia Capote in 1935.

--- From 1941-1944 Capote worked as a copyboy at The New Yorker, until he was fired for angering Robert Frost at his reading.

--- In 1945 "Miriam" and "The Jug of the Silver" was published in Mademoiselle and "A Tree of Night" was published in Harper's Bazaar.

--- A TREE OF NIGHT was published in 1949.

--- BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S was published in 1958.

--- Capote started to investigate the Clutters' murder case (the case that inspired his book IN COLD BLOOD).

--- IN COLD BLOOD was published in 1966 and in 1967 the movie version of "In Cold Blood" was released.

--- MUSIC FOR CHAMELEONS was published in 1980.

--- ONE CHRISTMAS was published in 1983.

--- Capote died August 25, 1984.

--- THREE BY TRUMAN CAPOTE was published in 1985.

--- ANSWERED PRAYERS: The Unfinished Novel was published in 1987.

ARTICLE

How do you measure a life?

Most often, we assess a person's actions, because that's what we see; we often don't know the private man or woman who lives behind the public mask. Yet the two can be very different, and there is perhaps no better illustration of this than Truman Capote.

In public, Truman Capote was outrageous. He offended and insulted people, and remarked that Jack Kerouac's work "isn't writing at all; it's typing." He was a social climber, a back stabber, and his behavior was frequently offensive if not downright disgusting.

On the surface, he did not appear to be the kind of person you would bring home to meet your family.

He was also a writer of uncommon grace and sensitivity. His words whirl and twirl along the pages, spinning unforgettable images of people and places.

Consider the opening paragraphs of THE GRASS HARP:

"When was it that first I heard of the grass harp? Long before the autumn we lived in the China tree; an earlier autumn then; and of course it was Dolly who told me, no one else would have known to call it that, a grass harp.

Below the hill grows a field of high Indian grass that changes color with the seasons: go to see it in the fall, scarlet shadows like firelight breeze over it and the autumn winds strum on its dry leaves sighing human music, a harp of voices.

Do you hear? That is the grass harp, always telling a story --- it knows the stories of all the people on the hill, of all the people who ever lived, and when we are dead it will tell ours, too."

He wrote about the frail, fragile folk who live on the margins of the world --- the perplexed Holly Golightly, the confused Miss Sook, the lonely Collin Fenwick.  He reminded us always, through his novels and stories, that there are strange people in the world, but that they must always be treated with kindness and understanding.

This is a person who you would be proud to invite to Sunday dinner.

He is perhaps best known for IN COLD BLOOD, the story of a brutal murder in Holcomb, Kansas, and for BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S, a novel about a young woman who is looking for a home. His first novel, OTHER VOICES, OTHER ROOMS, is the story of a young man who is sent to live with a father he has never known. A CHRISTMAS MEMORY is an autobiographical account of the years he spent living with his aunts. THE GRASS HARP and MUSIC FOR CHAMELEONS are collections of his short stories and essays.

To learn about the public Truman Capote, you have only to turn to George Plimpton's oral history, TRUMAN CAPOTE: IN WHICH VARIOUS FRIENDS, ENEMIES, ACQUAINTANCES AND DETRACTORS RECALL HIS TURBULENT CAREER. Plimpton has collected the remembrances, some pleasant, some not, of people who knew Capote at various stages of his life. It's a fascinating book, but I would argue that it only tells part of the story.

To understand the rest, you have to read his novels and stories --- when you do, you will understand that the private man was an altogether different person.

"One day," he once wrote, "I started writing, not knowing that I had chained myself for life to a noble but merciless master. When God hands you a gift, he also hands you a whip; and the whip is intended solely for self-flagellation...I'm here alone in my dark madness, all by myself with my deck of cards --- and, of course, the whip God gave me."

Truman Capote was one of the great writers of the 20th Century. To read him is to enter a strange, magical world filled with memorable characters and fascinating places. And I suspect that after you've spent some time in his world, you will wish you had had the opportunity to bring him home to meet your family.

--- Judith Handschuh