Truman Capote

Truman García Capote (pronounced ) (September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American writer whose non-fiction, stories, novels and plays are recognized literary classics. He is best known for In Cold Blood (1966) and the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958). At least 20 films and TV dramas have been produced from Capote novels, stories and screenplays.

Biography

Truman Capote was born Truman Streckfus Persons in New Orleans, Louisiana, to salesman Archulus "Arch" Persons and attractive 17-year-old Lillie Mae Faulk. When he was four, his parents divorced, and he was sent to Monroeville, Alabama, where he was raised by his mother's relatives. As a lonely child, Capote taught himself to read before he entered the first grade in school. He began writing at age eight and claimed to have written a book at age nine. When he was 11, he began writing seriously in daily three-hour sessions.

In 1933, he moved to New York City to live with his mother and her second husband, Joseph Capote, who adopted him and renamed him Truman García Capote in 1935. Capote attended the Trinity School where he was given an IQ test as an entrance exam and reportedly scored 215, the highest in the school's history. He later attended the Dwight School in New York, where an award is now given annually in his name, and Greenwich High School in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he wrote for the school paper, The Green Witch.

When he was 17, Capote ended his formal education and began a two-year job at The New Yorker. Years later, he wrote, "Not a very grand job, for all it really involved was sorting cartoons and clipping newspapers. Still, I was fortunate to have it, especially since I was determined never to set a studious foot inside a college classroom. I felt that either one was or wasn't a writer, and no combination of professors could influence the outcome. I still think I was correct, at least in my own case."

In an interview with The Paris Review in 1957, Truman said that "the test of whether or not a writer has divined the natural shape of the story is just this: After reading it, can you imagine it differently, or does it silence your imagination and seem to you absolute and final? As an orange is final. As an orange is something nature has made just right."

Other Voices, Other Rooms

In 1942, Mademoiselle published his short story "Miriam" which won an O. Henry Award (Best First-Published Story) in 1946. The award and story attracted the attention of publisher Bennett Cerf, resulting in a contract with Random House to write a novel. With an advance of $1,500, Capote returned to Monroeville and began Other Voices, Other Rooms, continuing to work on the manuscript in New Orleans, Saratoga Springs, New York, and in North Carolina, eventually completing it in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Capote described the symbolic tale as "a poetic explosion in highly suppressed emotion." The novel is a semi-autobiographical refraction of Capote's Alabama childhood. Decades later, writing in The Dogs Bark (1973), he looked back:

Other Voices, Other Rooms was an attempt to exorcise demons, an unconscious, altogether intuitive attempt, for I was not aware, except for a few incidents and descriptions, of its being in any serious degree autobiographical. Rereading it now, I find such self-deception unpardonable.

The story focuses on 13-year-old Joel Knox following the loss of his mother. Joel is sent from New Orleans to live with his father who abandoned him at the time of his birth. Arriving at Skully's Landing, a vast, decaying mansion in rural Alabama, Joel meets his sullen stepmother Amy, debauched transvestite Randolph and defiant Idabel, a girl who becomes his friend. He also sees a spectral "queer lady" with "fat dribbling curls" watching him from a top window. Despite Joel's queries, the whereabouts of his father remain a mystery. When he finally is allowed to see his father, Joel is stunned to find he is paralyzed and near speechless. He runs away with Idabel but catches pneumonia and eventually returns to the Landing where he is nursed back to health by Randolph. The "queer lady", beckoning from the window, turns out to be Randolph in an old Mardi Gras costume. Gerald Clarke, in Capote: A Biography (1988) described the conclusion:

Finally, when he goes to join the queer lady in the window, Joel accepts his destiny, which is to be homosexual, to always hear other voices and live in other rooms. Yet acceptance is not a surrender; it is a liberation. "I am me," he whoops. "I am Joel, we are the same people." So, in a sense, had Truman rejoiced when he made peace with his own identity.

When Other Voices, Other Rooms was published in 1948, it stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for nine weeks, selling more than 26,000 copies. The promotion and controversy surrounding this novel catapulted Capote to fame. A 1947 Harold Halma photograph of Capote was used to promote the book. Gerald Clarke, in Capote: A Biography (1988), wrote, "The famous photograph: Harold Halma's picture on the dustjacket of Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948) caused as much comment and controversy as the prose inside. Truman claimed that the camera had caught him off guard, but in fact he had posed himself and was responsible for both the picture and the publicity." Much of the early attention to Capote centered around this photograph, which was widely discussed at the time. According to Clarke, the photo created an "uproar" and gave Capote "not only the literary, but also the public personality he had always wanted." When the picture was reprinted along with reviews in magazines and newspapers, some readers were amused, but others were outraged and offended by what they saw as a suggestive pose. The novelist Merle Miller issued a complaint about the photo at a publishing forum, and the humorist Max Shulman satirized it by adopting an identical pose for the dustjacket of his collection, Max Shulman's Large Economy Size (1948). Random House featured the Halma photo in their "This is Truman Capote" ads, and large blowups were displayed in bookstore windows. Walking on Fifth Avenue, Halma overheard two middle-aged women looking at a Capote blowup in the window of a bookstore. When one woman said, "I'm telling you: he's just young," the other woman responded, "And I'm telling you, if he isn't young, he's dangerous!" Capote delighted in retelling this anecdote.

Random House followed the success of Other Voices, Other Rooms with A Tree of Night and Other Stories in 1949. In addition to "Miriam," this collection included "Shut a Final Door" (from The Atlantic Monthly), which also won an O. Henry Award (First Prize) in 1949. His 1951 novella, The Grass Harp was adapted as a 1952 play, a 1971 musical and a 1995 film.

Friendship with Harper Lee

Capote was a lifelong friend of his Monroeville neighbor Harper Lee, and he based the character of Idabel in Other Voices, Other Rooms on her. He in turn was the inspiration for Dill Harris in her 1960 bestseller To Kill a Mockingbird. In an interview with Lawrence Grobel, Capote recalled his childhood, "Mr. and Mrs. Lee, Harper Lee's mother and father, lived very near. Harper Lee was my best friend. Did you ever read her book, To Kill a Mockingbird? I'm a character in that book which takes place in the same small town in Alabama where we both lived."

It was rumored that Capote had written portions of her novel; some said he ghosted the entire novel. At least one person — Pearl Kazin Bell, an editor at Harper's — believed the rumor was true. However, Capote would likely have been much more aggressive in claiming credit for the novel's Pulitzer Prize had he been the real author, since he never achieved a Pulitzer for his own work. His persona was far more flamboyant than hers, and their writing styles reflect this difference. A July 9, 1959 letter from Capote to his aunt indicates that Harper Lee did indeed write the entire book herself ^*.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Short Novel and Three Stories (1958) brought together tales of personal loss: "House of Flowers," "A Diamond Guitar" and "A Christmas Memory." A first edition of this book is valued at $3000. For Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's was a turning point, as he explained to Roy Newquist (Counterpoint, 1964):

I think I've had two careers. One was the career of precocity, the young person who published a series of books that were really quite remarkable. I can even read them now and evaluate them favorably, as though they were the work of a stranger... My second career began, I guess it really began with Breakfast at Tiffany's. It involves a different point of view, a different prose style to some degree. Actually, the prose style is an evolvement from one to the other–-a pruning and thinning-out to a more subdued, clearer prose. I don't find it as evocative, in many respects, as the other, or even as original, but it is more difficult to do. But I'm nowhere near reaching what I want to do, where I want to go. Presumably this new book is as close as I'm going to get, at least stylistically.

In Cold Blood

The "new book," In Cold Blood, was inspired by a 300-word article that ran on page 19 of New York Times on Monday, November 16, 1959. The story carried the dateline of Holcomb, Kansas, November 15, and described the unexplained murder of the Clutter family in rural Holcomb:

Wealthy Farmer, 3 of Family Slain

A wealthy wheat farmer, his wife and their two young children were found shot to death today in their home. They had been killed by shotgun blasts at close range after being bound and gagged. The father, 48-year-old Herbert W. Clutter, was found in the basement with his son, Kenyon, 15. His wife Bonnie, 45, and a daughter, Nancy, 16, were in their beds. There were no signs of a struggle and nothing had been stolen. The telephone lines had been cut. "This is apparently the case of a psychopathic killer," Sheriff Earl Robinson said. Mr. Clutter was founder of The Kansas Wheat Growers Association. In 1954 President Eisenhower appointed him to the Federal Farm Credit Board, but he never lived in Washington... The Clutter farm and ranch cover almost 1,000 acres km² in one of the richest wheat areas. Mr. Clutter, his wife and daughter were clad in pajamas. The boy was wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt. The bodies were discovered by two of Nancy's classmates, Susan Kidwell and Nancy Ewalt... Two daughters were away. They are Beverly, a student at Kansas University, and Mrs. Donald G. Jarchow of Mount Carroll, Ill.

Fascinated by this brief news item, Capote traveled with Harper Lee to Holcomb and visited the scene of the massacre. Over the course of the next few years, he became acquainted with everyone involved in the investigation and most of the residents of the small town. Rather than taking notes during interviews, Capote committed conversations to memory and immediately wrote quotes as soon as an interview ended. His memory retention for verbatim conversations was tested at 94%. Harper Lee lent Capote considerable assistance during his research for In Cold Blood. During the first few months of his investigation, she was able to make inroads into the community by befriending the wives of those Capote wanted to interview.

In Cold Blood was serialized in The New Yorker in 1965 and published in hardcover by Random House in 1966. The "non-fiction novel," as Capote labeled it, brought him literary acclaim and became an international bestseller. A feud between Capote and critic Kenneth Tynan erupted in the pages of The Observer after Tynan's review of In Cold Blood implied that Capote wanted an execution so the book would have an effective ending. Tynan wrote:

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 front rank has been placed in a position of privileged intimacy with 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? An attempt to help (by supplying new psychiatric testimony) might easily have failed: what one misses is any sign that it was ever contemplated.

The film Capote (2005) highlighted Capote's conflict between his self-absorbed obsession with finishing the book and his compassion for his subjects.

In Cold Blood brought Capote much praise from the literary community, but there were some who questioned certain events as reported in the book. Writing in Esquire (1966), Phillip K. Tompkins noted factual discrepancies after he traveled to Kansas and talked to some of the same people interviewed by Capote. In a telephone interview with Tompkins, Mrs. Meier denied that she heard Perry cry and that she held his hand as described by Capote. In Cold Blood indicates that Meier and Perry became close, yet she told Tompkins she spent little time with Perry and did not talk much with him. Tompkins concluded:

Capote has, in short, achieved a work of art. He has told exceedingly well a tale of high terror in his own way. But, despite the brilliance of his self-publicizing efforts, he has made both a tactical and a moral error that will hurt him in the short run. By insisting that “every word” of his book is true he has made himself vulnerable to those readers who are prepared to examine seriously such a sweeping claim.

Celebrity

Capote stood at just over 5'2" (159 cm) and was openly gay in a time when it was common among artists, but rarely talked about. One of his first serious lovers was Newton Arvin, a professor of literature at Smith College and winner of the National Book Award for his biography of Herman Melville.

Capote was well known for his distinctive, high-pitched, lisping voice, his offbeat manner of dress and his fabrications. He claimed to know intimately people he had in fact never met, such as Greta Garbo. He professed to have had numerous liaisons with men thought to be heterosexual, including, he claimed, Errol Flynn. He traveled in eclectic circles, hobnobbing with authors, critics, business tycoons, philanthropists, Hollywood stars, theatrical celebrities, royalty and members of high society, both in the U.S. and abroad. Part of his public persona was a long-standing rivalry with writer Gore Vidal. Although Capote had faint praise for other writers, one who had his approval was Lacey Fosburgh, author of Closing Time: The True Story of the Goodbar Murder (1977).

A short story published in Esquire in the 1970s, part of his never completed work The Unfinished Novel (published as an "unfinished novel" after his death), alienated most of his celebrity acquaintances, who recognized thinly disguised versions of themselves in the story.

Black & White Ball

On November 28, 1966, in honor of publisher Katharine Graham, Capote hosted a legendary masked ball, called the Black & White Ball, in the Grand Ballroom of New York City's Plaza Hotel. It was considered the social event of not only that season but of many to follow. The New York Times and other publications gave it considerable coverage, and Deborah Davis wrote an entire book about the event, Party of the Century (2006).

Capote dangled the prized invitations for months, snubbing early supporters like Carson McCullers as he determined who was "in" and who was "out." In choosing his guest of honor, Capote eschewed glamorous "swans" like Babe Paley and Marella Agnelli in favor of Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham. Actress Candice Bergen was bored at the ball. Capote's elevator man danced the night away with a woman who didn't know his pedigree. Norman Mailer sounded off about Vietnam.

Later life

After the success of In Cold Blood Capote entrenched himself completely in the world of the jet set, ostensibly conducting research (unbeqnownst to his benefactors) for his tell-all Answered Prayers, which was intended to be the American equivalent of Marcel Proust's Remberances of Things Past and a culmination of the "nonfiction novel" idiom. Despite assertations earlier in life that one "lost an IQ point for every year spent on the West Coast", he purchased a home in Palm Springs, began to use cocaine on a regular basis, and often quarreled publicly with the socially retiring Jack Dunphy (his companion, with whom he shared a non-exclusive relationship from 1948 until his death); they would spend most of the 1970s separated. In the absense of Dunphy Capote began to frequent the bathhouse circuit in New York, often seducing working-class, sexually unsure men half his age. The dearth of new material and other professional setbacks (including a rejected screenplay for Paramount's 1974 adaptation of The Great Gatsby) was counteracted by Capote's frequenting of the talk show circuit, where he would often appear inebriated and to many older friends a shadow of his former self.

In 1972, Capote accompanied the Rolling Stones on their 1972 American tour with then-best friend Lee Radziwill in tow as a correspondent for Rolling Stone magazine; he left the tour early after continually arguing with Mick Jagger and refused to write the piece after taking extensive notes, citing intense boredom with the subject. The magazine eventually recouped its interests by publishing a 1973 interview of the author conducted by Andy Warhol. A collection of earlier works appeared that year, yet the publication date of Answered Prayers was pushed back once more.

By 1975, public demand for the work had reached a critical mass, with many speculating that Capote had never even started the book. To prove that he was still a functional writer, he permitted Esquire to publish three long chapters of the unfinished novel throughout 1975 and 1976, roughly surpassing the length of Breakfast at Tiffany's if taken as one work. While the first, entitled "Mojave", was received relatively favorably, "La Cote Basque 1965" and "Unspoiled Monsters" would alienate Capote from his established base of middle aged, wealthy female friends (whom he affectionately referred to as his "swans") and raise ire from contemporaries like Tennessee Williams, with only "swans" C.Z. Guest and the aforementioned Radizwill remaining by his side throughout the ordeal. Many in Capote's social circles found the works to be a specific attack against his primary benefactors throughout the 1950s and 1960s, socialite Babe Paley and her husband, TV executive Richard S. Paley, with the stories containing many references to their troubled marriage; many felt the publication of these intimate details contributed to her death in 1978. Nevertheless, the issue featuring "La Cote Basque" sold out almost immediately after publication and with the ensuing shunning of the author Capote picked up a new nickname--"the Tiny Terror".

Capote was further demoralized in 1978 when Radizwill provided testimony on behalf of perpetual nemesis Gore Vidal in a defamation lawsuit stemming from a drunken interview Capote gave Playboy in 1976; in a retaliatory move, he appeared on Stanley Siegal's talk show as what he termed a "drunken Southern fag" and revealed salacious personal details about the erstwhile princess and her sister, former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. In an ironic twist of fate, Warhol (who had made a point of seeking out the bon vivant Capote when he first came to New York) took the author under his wing, allotted him a spot in his Studio 54 entourage, gave him steady work for Interview, and encouraged him to be a productive writer once more. Out of this creative burst came the short pieces that would form the basis for 1980's bestselling Music For Chameleons. He also underwent a facelift procedure, lost weight, and experimented with hair transplantation, yet final attempts at drug rehabilitation were only moderately successful.

After the revocation of his driver's license (the result of speeding near his Long Island residence) and a hallucinatory seizure in 1980 that required hospitalization, Capote became fairly reclusive. These hallucinations continued unabated throughout the decade, and scans revealed that his brain mass had perceptibly shrunk. On the rare occassions when he was lucid, he continued to hype Answered Prayers as being nearly complete and was reportedly planning a sequel to the Black and White Ball to have been held either in Los Angeles or some exotic locale. Capote died, according to the coroner's report, of "liver disease complicated by phlebitis and multiple drug intoxication" at the age of 59 on August 25, 1984, in the home of his old friend Joanne Carson, ex-wife of late-night TV host Johnny Carson, on whose program Capote was a frequent guest. He was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California, leaving behind his longtime companion, author Jack Dunphy, with whom he had reconciled with in the late 1970s. Dunphy died in 1992, and in 1994 both his and Capote's ashes were scattered at Crooked Pond, between Bridgehampton and Sag Harbor on Long Island, close to where the two had maintained a property with individual houses for many years. He also maintained a property in Palm Springs and a primary residence at the United Nations Plaza in New York City.

Capote twice won the O. Henry Memorial Short Story Prize and was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

Capote on film

Capote's childhood experiences are captured in the 1956 memoir "A Christmas Memory," which he adapted for television and narrated. Directed by Frank Perry, it aired on December 21, 1966, on ABC Stage 67 and was later incorporated into Perry's 1969 anthology film Trilogy (aka Truman Capote's Trilogy), which also includes adaptations of "Miriam" and "Among the Paths to Eden." The TV movie Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory, with Patty Duke and Piper Laurie, was a 1997 remake, directed by Glenn Jordan.

In 1961 Capote's novel Breakfast at Tiffany's about a flamboyant New York party girl named Holly Golightly was filmed by director Blake Edwards and starred Audrey Hepburn in what many consider her defining role, though Capote never approved of the toning down of the story to appeal to mass audiences.

Capote narrated his The Thanksgiving Visitor (1967), filmed by Frank Perry in Pike Road, Alabama. Geraldine Page won an Emmy for her performance in this TV movie.

In Cold Blood was filmed twice: When Richard Brooks directed the 1967 film with Robert Blake and Scott Wilson, he filmed at the actual Clutter house and other Holcomb, Kansas, locations. Anthony Edwards and Eric Roberts headed the cast of the 1996 In Cold Blood miniseries, directed by Jonathan Kaplan.

Neil Simon's 1976 murder mystery spoof Murder by Death provided Capote's main role as an actor, portraying reclusive millionaire Lionel Twain who invites the world's leading detectives together to a dinner party to have them solve a murder. The performance brought him a Golden Globe nomination (Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture). As a trivia note, it is alleged in the beginning of the movie that the character played by Capote, Lionel Twain, has "no pinkies." In truth, Capote's little fingers were unusually large.

In Woody Allen's Annie Hall (1977), there is a scene in which Alvy (Woody Allen) and Annie (Diane Keaton) are observing passersby in the park. Alvy comments, "Oh, there goes the winner of the Truman Capote Look-Alike Contest." The passerby is actually Truman Capote (who appeared in the film uncredited).

Other Voices, Other Rooms came to theater screens in 1995 with David Speck in the lead role of Joel Sansom. Reviewing this atmospheric Southern Gothic film in the New York Times, Stephen Holden wrote:

One of the things the movie does best is transport you back in time and into nature. In the early scenes as Joel leaves his aunt's home to travel across the South by rickety bus and horse and carriage, you feel the strangeness, wonder and anxiety of a child abandoning everything that's familiar to go to a place so remote he has to ask directions along the way. The landscape over which he travels is so rich and fertile that you can almost smell the earth and sky. Later on, when Joel tussles with Idabell (Aubrey Dollar), a tomboyish neighbor who becomes his best friend (a character inspired by the author Harper Lee), the movie has a special force and clarity in its evocation of the physical immediacy of being a child playing outdoors.

Capote's short story "Children on Their Birthdays", another look back at a smalltown Alabama childhood, was brought to film by director Mark Medoff in 2002.

Works about Capote

With Love from Truman (1966), a 29-minute documentary by David and Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, shows a Newsweek reporter interviewing Capote at his beachfront home in Long Island. Capote talks about In Cold Blood, his relationship with the murderers and his coverage of the trial. He is also seen taking Alvin Dewey and his wife around New York City for the first time. Originally titled A Visit with Truman Capote, this film was commissioned by National Educational Television and shown on the NET network.

In 1990, Robert Morse received both a Tony Award and an Emmy for his portrayal of Capote in the one-man show, Tru, seen on the PBS series American Playhouse in 1992.

Louis Negrin portrayed Capote in 54 (1998), and Sam Street is seen briefly as Capote in Isn't She Great? (2000), a biographical comedy-drama about Jacqueline Susann. Michael J. Burg has appeared as Capote in two films, The Audrey Hepburn Story (2000) and The Hoax (2006), about Clifford Irving.

Truman Capote: The Tiny Terror is a documentary that aired April 6, 2004, as part of A&E's Biography series, followed by a DVD release in 2005.

In July, 2005, Oni Press published comic book artist and writer Ande Parks' Capote in Kansas: A Drawn Novel, a fictionalized account of Capote and Lee researching In Cold Blood.

Director Bennett Miller made his dramatic feature debut with the biographical film Capote (2005). Depicting the years Truman Capote spent researching and writing In Cold Blood, Capote garnered much critical acclaim when it was released (September 30, 2005 in the US and February 24, 2006 in the UK). Dan Futterman's screenplay was based on the book Capote: A Biography by Gerald Clarke. Capote received five Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress. Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance earned him many awards, including a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award, an Independent Spirit Award, and the 2006 Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

The film Infamous (2006) which stars Toby Jones as Capote and Sandra Bullock as Harper Lee, is an adaptation of the 1997 George Plimpton book.

Discography

Capote (2005) film soundtrack by Mychael Danna. Reading by Capote.
A Christmas Memory LP. Reading by Capote.
House of Flowers Columbia 10" LP. Reading by Capote.
House of Flowers Broadway production. Saint Subber presents Truman Capote and Harold Arlen’s House of Flowers, starring Pearl Bailey. Directed by Peter Brook with musical numbers by Herbert Ross. Columbia 12" LP, Stereo-OS-2320. Electronically reprocessed for stereo.
In Cold Blood (1966) RCA Victor Red Seal monophonic LP, VDM-110. Reading by Capote.
In Cold Blood Random House unabridged on 12 CDs. Read by Scott Brick.
The Thanksgiving Visitor (1967) United Artists LP UAS 6682. Reading by Capote.

Published and other works

Year	Title	Type/Notes
approx. 1943	Summer Crossing	Novel; posthumously published 2005
1945	"Miriam"	Short story; published in Mademoiselle (magazine)
1948	Other Voices, Other Rooms	Novel
1949	A Tree of Night and Other Stories	Collection of short stories
1951	The Grass Harp	Novel
1952	The Grass Harp	Play
1953	Beat the Devil	Original screenplay
1954	House of Flowers	Broadway musical
1956	The Muses Are Heard	Non-fiction
1956	"A Christmas Memory"	Short story; published in Mademoiselle (magazine)
1957	"The Duke in His Domain"	Portrait of Marlon Brando; published in The New Yorker
1958	Breakfast at Tiffany's	Novella
1960	The Innocents	Screenplay based on Turn of the Screw by Henry James
1963		The Collected Writings of Truman Capote
1964		A short story appeared in Seventeen magazine
1966	In Cold Blood	"Non-fiction novel"
1968	The Thanksgiving Visitor	Novella
1971	The Great Gatsby	Screenplay based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, rejected by Paramount Pictures
1973	The Dogs Bark	Collection of travel articles and personal sketches.
1975	"Mojave" and "La Cote Basque, 1965"	Short stories from Answered Prayers; published in Esquire
1976	"Unspoiled Monsters" and "Kate McCloud"	Short stories from Answered Prayers; published in Esquire
1980	Music for Chameleons	Short story collection
1986	The Unfinished Novel	Published posthumously
2005	Summer Crossing	Previously lost first novel — published in the 2005-10-24 issue of The New Yorker

Listen to

References

Krebs, Albin. "Truman Capote Is Dead at 59; Novelist of Style and Clarity," New York Times obituary (August 28, 1984)
Inge, M. Thomas (1987) Truman Capote Conversations. University Press of Mississippi. Interviews with Capote by Gerald Clarke, David Frost, Eric Norden, George Plimpton, Gloria Steinem, Jerry Tallmer, Eugene Walter, Andy Warhol, Jann Wenner and others. ISBN 0878052747
Plimpton, George (1997) Truman Capote, In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances, and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career. Published by Nan A. Talese (imprint of Doubleday). Collection of first-hand observations about the author.
Walter, Eugene, as told to Katherine Clark, foreword by George Plimpton (2001) Milking the Moon: A Southerner's Story of Life on This Planet. Crown. Actor-novelist-raconteur Walter recounts several anecdotes about Capote.

External links

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