Years of life: from 09/30/1924 to 08/25/1984
American novelist and short story writer, many of his short stories, novels, plays and journalistic works recognized literary classics, including Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood, a work he called a "non-fictional novel," initiating a new genre of literature.
Truman Capote was born in New Orleans and lived there until the age of eighteen. At the age of four, before entering school, Truman learned to read. By the age of eight he began to write stories, and by the age of eleven he claims he was writing six to nine hours a day. Critics even believe that this is true, because at the age of ten he won a prestigious award for a short story.
In 1933 he moved with his mother and stepfather to New York. studying in high school, Capote wrote for the school newspaper and for the literary magazine. At the age of seventeen, he dropped out of college, citing the fact that they did not teach him anything, but only take away the time that he could spend writing. Capote begins working for The New Yorker, where he learns the ins and outs of the publishing world.
Truman Capote began his literary career Miriam's story, published in Mademoiselle magazine in 1945. And in 1948 he received the O. Henry Prize for the story Close the Last Door. He soon published his first book, Other Voices, Other Rooms. The book becomes a bestseller, and Truman's career skyrocketed. Unlike previous non-fiction works, the novel showed the author's penchant for fantasy and the grotesque and his distaste for the philistine life. In 1949, his collection The Tree of Night and Other Stories was published, and in 1951, the story Voices of the Grass, which was also a success. In 1956, the book The Muses Are Heard was published - a story about a trip to the USSR by a Negro group with the performance of Porgy and Bess.
One of Capote's most popular works is Breakfast at Tiffany's, a book that, in addition to the title novel, includes three short stories. But anyway most famous he brings the book Cold-Blooded Murder. In 1959, after reading a story about a family murder in Kansas, Capote suggested to New Yorker editor William Sean that he publish a series of articles about the killers. And then he spent six years compiling material for his flagship bestseller, the documentary history of outlaws Dick Hickok and Perry Smith, as he watched his characters approach death.
After the execution of the criminals, Capote complained to Harper Lee that there was nothing he could do for these people. "Maybe," Harper replied, "but you really didn't want to do anything." But the novel In Cold Blood brought the writer about four million dollars (seventy thousand of which Truman spent on a tombstone for his heroes). Capote has become a living classic.
He wanted more: to be the main secular character of his time, to enter the history of a glamorous life. He became a socialite even before he became a great writer. He talked with artists and writers, fell in love with men, made friends with women, eavesdropped, skillfully used gossip. Everyone who knew him said that Capote had a gift for making friends from the first meeting, at first sight. And he enjoyed this gift. Truman achieved his goal: his name flashes literally in all collections of fashion history. How he dressed himself, no one cared. But he surrounded himself with such a retinue that it was possible to study fashion trends from it even before they became fashionable. He was considered a homosexual, the more scandalous was this retinue, which included the most famous secular lionesses of those years - their names constantly flashed in the gossip columns, their husbands were rich and famous, and they enthusiastically bore the title of Truman Capote's "swans". They say that Capote himself called these ladies “swans”. He probably meant Andersen's fairy tale ugly duck: the duckling, of course, was he himself, a little man with a childish face, exactly 160 cm tall, extremely insecure, mortally thirsty for fame. Others believe that Truman chose all these beauties - Babe Paley, Gloria Guinness, Lee Radziwill, CZ Guest and other less intimate friends - based solely on the length of their necks.
Social entertainment and the stress of working on In Cold Blood took a toll on his health. From attractive man he turned into a decrepit old man. He drank. Even if there was no reason, he always found it. If someone took away the bottle from him, he became furious. Valium became his constant "companion". Although he continued to release new literary works, they no longer brought special, truly exciting success. It seemed that Capote had reached "the handle." In one of the morning TV shows, he threatened suicide. He was still well-informed, his phone overheated from endless conversations, not a single minor scandal escaped his close attention. But, nevertheless, Capote understood that he had written himself. New literary work Dogs bark, published in 1974, was not successful.
His last work conceived on a large scale. Answered prayers - this is how Truman called his amorous novel about Hollywood idols. However, it remained unfinished. But Capote published in Esquire magazine La Cote Basque (that was the name of New York's most famous restaurant for high society) - an excerpt from his unfinished novel, where he gave out all the secrets of his socialite girlfriends and exposed them as some kind of obscene dolls. "All literature is gossip," he said. After the publication, Capote received a complete resignation from all his friends. He betrayed them for the sake of his main girlfriend - fame. But he also lost her.
Some considered Capote a little crazy, others were delighted with his work ... Nevertheless, being outstanding personality, he left a significant mark in the literature of America.
In 2005, Capote was immortalized in the film Capote. The film tells the story of the writing of the novel In Cold Blood. The film premiered on Truman Capote's birthday.
Writer's Awards
Truman Capote was awarded the O. Henry Prize for his story Close the Last Door in 1948.
Real name:
Truman S. Persons (Truman Streckfus Persons)
Born in New Orleans and lived there until the age of eighteen. At the age of four, before entering school, Truman learned to read. By the age of eight he began to write stories, and by the age of eleven he claims he was writing six to nine hours a day. Critics even believe that this is true, because at the age of ten he won a prestigious award for a short story.
In 1933 he moved with his mother and stepfather to New York. While in high school, Capote wrote for the school newspaper and for a literary magazine. At the age of seventeen, he dropped out of college, citing the fact that they did not teach him anything, but only take away the time that he could spend writing. Capote begins working for The New Yorker, where he learns the ins and outs of the publishing world.
Truman Capote began his literary career with the story Miriam, published in Mademoiselle magazine in 1945. And in 1948 he received the O. Henry Award for the story "Close the last door." He soon published his first book, Other Voices, Other Rooms. The book becomes a bestseller, and Truman's career skyrocketed. Unlike previous documentary works, the novel showed the author's penchant for fantasy and the grotesque. In 1949, his collection "The Tree of Night and Other Stories" was published, and in 1951 - the story "Voices of Grass", which was also a success. In 1956, the book "Muses are heard" was published - a story about a trip to the USSR by a Negro group with the performance of Porgy and Bess.
One of Capote's most popular works is Breakfast at Tiffany's, a book that, in addition to the title novel, includes three short stories. However, he is best known for his book In Cold Blood. In 1959, after reading an article about the murder of a family in Kansas, Capote suggested to New Yorker editor William Sean that he publish a series of articles about the murderers. And then he spent six years compiling material for his flagship bestseller, the documentary history of outlaws Dick Hickok and Perry Smith, as he watched his characters approach death.
After the criminals were executed, Capote complained to Harper Lee that there was nothing he could do for these people. "Maybe," Harper replied, "but you really didn't want to do anything." But the novel "In Cold Blood" brought the writer about four million dollars (seventy thousand of which Truman spent on a tombstone for his heroes). Capote has become a living classic.
He wanted more: to be the main secular character of his time, to enter the history of a glamorous life. He became a socialite even before he became a great writer. He talked with artists and writers, fell in love with men, made friends with women, eavesdropped, skillfully used gossip. Everyone who knew him said that Capote had a gift for making friends from the first meeting, at first sight. And he enjoyed this gift. Truman achieved his goal: his name flashes literally in all collections of fashion history. How he dressed himself, no one cared. But he surrounded himself with such a retinue that it was possible to study fashion trends from it even before they became fashionable. He was considered a homosexual, the more scandalous was this retinue, which included the most famous secular lionesses of those years - their names constantly flashed in the gossip columns, their husbands were rich and famous, and they enthusiastically bore the title of Truman Capote's "swans". They say that Capote himself called these ladies “swans”. He probably meant Andersen's fairy tale "The Ugly Duckling": the duckling, of course, was himself, a man with a child's face, exactly 160 cm tall, extremely insecure, mortally thirsty for fame. Others believe that Truman chose all these beauties - Babe Paley, Gloria Guinness, Lee Radziwill, CZ Guest and other less intimate friends - based solely on the length of their necks.
Social entertainment and the stress of working on "In Cold Blood" undermined his health. From an attractive man, he turned into a decrepit old man. He drank. Even if there was no reason, he always found it. If someone took away the bottle from him, he became furious. Valium became his constant "companion". Although he continued to release new literary works, they no longer brought special, truly exciting success. It seemed that Capote had reached "the handle." In one of the morning TV shows, he threatened suicide. He was still well-informed, his phone overheated from endless conversations, not a single minor scandal escaped his close attention. But, nevertheless, Capote understood that he had written himself. The new literary work "The Dogs Bark", published in 1973, did not bring success.
His last work was conceived on a large scale. "Answered Prayers" - this is how Truman called his amorous novel about Hollywood idols. However, it remained unfinished. But Capote published in Esquire magazine La Cote Basque (that was the name of New York's most famous restaurant for high society), an excerpt from his unfinished novel, where he gave out all the secrets of his socialite girlfriends and exposed them as some kind of obscene dolls. “All literature is gossip,” he said. After the publication, Capote received a complete resignation from all his friends. He betrayed them for the sake of his main girlfriend - glory. But he also lost her.
Some considered Capote a little crazy, others were delighted with his work ... Nevertheless, being an outstanding personality, he left a significant mark on American literature.
Summer Cruise is the debut novel written by twenty-year-old Capote when he first came from New Orleans to New York, and was considered lost for sixty years. The manuscript of the novel "surfaced" at the Sotheby's auction in 2004. Summer Cruise was first published in 2005.
IN early period creativity, which took place more or less in line with the "southern Gothic", Truman Capote showed, perhaps not too obvious, but a noticeable interest in science fiction, periodically using fantastic and mystical elements in his works. In genre databases and reference and critical sources, the author is usually taken into account with the short novel "Other Voices, Other Rooms" (for surrealistic-Gothic moments, in particular, highlighted famous critic Harold Bloom, the key elements of the Gothic tradition are ghosts, folklore legends and tales, dreams and obsessions); as well as with his first collection "The Tree of the Night", most of the stories of which have fantastic stories or gravitate toward the dark, macabre imagery traditional in supernatural literature. Some of the stories in this collection were subsequently included in fantastic or mystical anthologies. For example, the story "Bad Doom" was reprinted in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (1962) and the anthology Cracked Looking Glass: Stories of Other Realities (1971). The story "Miriam", as a classic of ghost stories, has repeatedly appeared in various anthologies, incl. edited by William Tenn, Peter Straub, Stephen Jones. The story "Close the Last Door" was published in the anthologies "The Arbor House Treasury of Horror and the Supernatural" by B. Malzberg and "Great Tales of Horror and the Supernatural" by B. Pronzini, M. Greenberg, B. Malzberg.
Also, Russian translations of the stories "Evil Rock" and "Bottle of Silver" were published in the anthology "Guests of the Land of Fantasy".
Bio note:
"I drink because that's the only way I can bear my alcoholism."
The prominent American novelist Truman Capote (1924-1984) had plenty of reasons to drink. Firstly, he was born into a family of alcoholics: a neurotic who washed down her amorous troubles with bourbon and seized them with tranquilizers, and a heavy drinking traveling salesman who quickly abandoned his family. Secondly, he was gay, and according to one of the modern versions - a transgender creature, a woman in the ugly body of a short man with a bulldog head. Thirdly, Capote was secular lion: his life was spent in endless pretentious receptions and bohemian parties. And the last thing: Truman was heavily dependent not only on harmful substances, he got the most important buzz from strong emotional shocks - he was friends with sentenced killers, rushed into the maelstrom of romantic adventures, sat down on endless diets.
The author of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Ordinary Murder" struggled with depression all his life, from which, in addition to whiskey, he was treated with all permitted and prohibited medications, as well as travel and grandiose parties. These parties (especially the legendary Black and White Ball in 1966, where the entire secular and political elite of the United States had fun) were widely covered in the press, for many the Capote freak completely overshadowed the Capote the writer. With the burden of fame, Capote also had an ambivalent relationship. Writer John Nowell once enviously remarked: "In America, there are only two writers who are recognized on the street - Ernest Hemingway and Truman Capote." By the end of his life, Capote had turned from a living classic into a national laughing stock: he was drunk, he was gibberish on daytime talk shows for housewives, he did not get out of the “drying out” clinics and wrote almost nothing. And it was Capote's drunkenness that caused early death one of America's literary titans of the 20th century.
Genius against drinking
drinking companions
Marilyn Monroe Movie star Capote was associated with a love of booze and pills. It was Monroe that Truman saw in leading role in the film adaptation of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (the role went to Audrey Hepburn). On the cover of your last book Truman is shown dancing with Marilyn. Harper Lee With the author of the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" Truman was friends since childhood: their families lived in the neighborhood. Truman introduced Harper in Other Voices under the name Idabel, and he himself became the prototype for Harris in To Kill a Mockingbird. Andy Warhol The young artist fell in love with Capote from a photograph and harassed him with calls asking for a meeting. In the 70s, Warhol became Capote's only friend - he ordered texts for his Interview magazine and gave him drinks at the Studio 54 club.Truman Capote has always been famous for his incredible eccentricity; however, it was not at all his numerous reckless antics that brought Capote fame - as a writer, Truman managed to establish himself very, very talented person. His works are considered classics to this day. modern literature and served as the basis for a number of films and plays.
Truman Streckfus Persons, better known as Truman Capote (Truman Streckfus Persons or Truman Capote, 09/30/1924 - 08/25/1984) - American writer, screenwriter, playwright and actor; author of a number of short stories, novellas, plays and documentaries, which are considered classics of world literature to this day. Among other things, is the author of the story "Breakfast at Tiffany's" ("Breakfast at Tiffany's") and "non-fictional" crime novel"Cold-blooded murder" ("In Cold Blood"). More than 20 films have been made based on Capote's work. television projects.
Truman was born in New Orleans, Louisiana (New Orleans, Louisiana), in the family of 17-year-old Lily Mae Faulk (Lillie Mae Faulk) and her husband, traveling salesman Arhulus Persons (Archulus Persons). The boy's parents divorced when he was only 4; Truman himself was sent to Monroeville, Alabama (Monroeville, Alabama), where he lived for some time under the supervision of his mother's relatives. Here, Capote became friends with Harper Lee (Harper Lee) - in the future famous writer and author of "To Kill a Mockingbird". There were rumors that the image of Dill (Dill) Li copied just from Capote.
A single child, Capote early - even before school - learned
I read and write. Already at the age of 5, the boy was dragging around with a dictionary and a notebook; at the age of 11 he began to write his first works of art. Truman even won The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards in 1936.
In 1933, the boy moved to New York to live with his mother and her second husband, Joseph Capote. The stepfather not only adopted the boy as a stepson, but also changed his name to Truman Garcia Capote. Some time later, however, Joseph was convicted of embezzlement; along with him, the source of income also left the family - and the boy and his mother had to leave the comfort of Park Avenue.
Between 1943 and 1946, Capote wrote mostly short stories; they were published both in special literary editions and in journals aimed at a relatively general public. Some of Capote's works even brought him prizes, albeit not very large ones. In the 40s, Capote wrote a story about a summer romance socialite and a parking attendant Truman himself later claimed that he destroyed the manuscript of the story, but 20 years after his death, the text suddenly surfaced - as it turned out, the tenant of the apartment in which Capote lived took the manuscript out of the trash. Published posthumously
there was in 2006.
The success of Capote's short story "Miriam" attracted the attention of a major publisher, Bennett Cerf; some time later, Truman received a contract from Random House to write the story. With a $1,500 advance, Capote returned to Monroeville, where he began work on Other Voices, Other Rooms. The story was published in 1948; Capote himself called it "a poetic explosion into strongly repressed emotions." To some extent, the work was autobiographical in nature.
Capote's book was received very warmly - it hit the New York Times bestseller rating, where it lasted for 9 whole weeks; V total over 26,000 copies have been sold. Much of the book was promoted by a photograph taken by Harold Halma in 1947; it showed Capote glaring furiously at the photographer. This photograph was very, very well known in its time; some of Truman's face on it amused, while others, on the contrary, aroused open anger.
In the early 1950s, Capote set to work on screenplays and plays; during this time he reworked several of his old works for the stage and the movie screen. In addition, Truman managed
visit the Soviet Union; a series of articles he wrote for the "New Yorker" later formed the basis of his first non-fiction book, "The Muses are heard" ("The Muses Are Heard").
The story "Breakfast at Tiffany's" was published in 1958; three additional, smaller works were added to it in one edition. The book was to the taste of both the public and critics; main character became one of the most famous literary heroes new time.
Truman Capote's second legendary masterpiece, In Cold Blood, was released in 1966. It is believed that the author was inspired by a short article published on November 16, 1959 in The New York Times when writing it; this article described the mysterious murder of the Clutter family in countryside Kansas. The story so impressed Capote that he - along with Harper Lee - went to inspect the crime scene. Over the following years, Capote collected information about what had happened; Interestingly, he did not write down the testimonies of witnesses, relying solely on his own memory and making notes only after the end of the next conversation. The published novel became a real bestseller on a national scale - and, alas, the last written
nnaya Capote story. The novel was positioned as a documentary, although for many this documentary quality seemed very, very doubtful; however, even as piece of art, the novel was of clear value.
In the future, Capote continued to write little by little for magazines and attract the attention of the general public with all sorts of high-profile performances. Later, he settled in Palm Springs and began to lead a frankly meaningless lifestyle - among other things, drinking heavily. Several times he managed to visit rehabilitation clinics, but all attempts to take up the mind consistently ended in new breakdowns. Capote had his driver's license revoked for speeding; after this episode and after a seizure with hallucinations that occurred in 1980, Truman became a real recluse. A medical examination showed that Capote's brain had been significantly reduced in size; in rare periods of enlightenment, however, Truman insisted on his adequacy - and even tried to promote his "almost finished" novel "Answered Prayers" ("Answered Prayers").
Truman Capote died on August 25, 1984; The cause of the writer's death was liver cancer, complicated by constant drug use.
Truman Garcia Capote (born Truman Streckfus Persons, September 30, 1924, New Orleans, USA - August 25, 1984, Los Angeles, USA) was an American novelist and short story writer.
Truman Capote was born in New Orleans and lived there for the first eighteen years of his life. He began to write at the age of eight, "for no apparent reason, not prompted by anyone's example." He did not take lessons at school, but wrote the way future violinists and pianists do music: every day and for several hours a day.
I wrote adventure stories detective stories with murders, sketches, stories heard from former slaves and veterans of the Civil War. Was getting great pleasure— at first.
The pleasure ended when I discovered the difference between good letter and bad; and then made an even more disturbing discovery, sensing the difference between very good writing and true art. Barely noticeable, but scary. By the age of seventeen I was a complete writer.
At the age of 19, Truman published the story "Miriam" in Mademoiselle magazine, which was awarded the O. Henry Prize. In 1949, his collection A Tree of Night and Other Stories was published, and in 1951, The Grass Harp was published.
In 1948, his first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, was published, greeted by critics with delight and surprise: how can such a young man write so well. No wonder - by this time Capote had been writing for sixteen years. Unlike non-fiction works, the novel showed the author's penchant for fantasy and the grotesque and his distaste for the philistine life.
From the very beginning, two currents were distinguished in his work: purely fiction and documentary, there were two worlds: lyrical and objective; sometimes they diverged, sometimes merged, giving each other additional depth.
This current came to the surface in Local Color (1950), a book of portraits and essays. It was followed in 1956 by the book “Muses are heard” - a story about a trip to the USSR by a Negro group with the play “Porgy and Bess”.
For Soviet people this visit was almost the first breath of air Western culture because of iron curtain; for the Americans - perhaps the first ordinary evidence of the life of "a mysterious and dangerous neighbor on the planet."
Capote's most famous book was "In Cold Blood" (1966; (eng. In Cold Blood) - a "non-fictional novel" about two young psychopaths who exterminated a Kansas family. The fusion of artistry and documentary, which increasingly occupied the minds of Americans at that time, gave rise to a "new journalism."
But here, too, Capote turned out to be, as always, original: while for the “new journalists” like the well-known Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer, the writer was in the foreground and his experiences almost more important than that, which he writes, for Capote, in his own words, "the most difficult thing in this work was to completely remove myself from the book." At the time of writing this book, Capote spent six years roaming the plains of Kansas, talking to witnesses and murderers.
If we try to roughly, in a few words, outline the topics that most attracted the writer in fiction, then these are: people who are not built into society and the search for love.
Perhaps this fact reflected the homosexuality of the writer, which he did not hide. Fantasy, the motives of the terrible and painful, noted by critics, are only derivatives. Not a single love comes true, not a single hope comes true, and there is no one to lean against for his heroes, but this is not black literature A person is alive until the need to live has disappeared.
The cases he is talking about are more specific than general. Like his contemporary Jerome Salinger, Truman Capote was not interested in the scale, but in the perfection of the written, not in a strong statement, but in the truth, not in educating people, but in understanding them.
He was not an avant-garde. He could take finished form and the entourage of a gothic novel, as in Other Voices, Other Rooms, and fill them with freshness, justifying secrets and horrors by the fact that reality is perceived by the eye of an inexperienced, sensitive, but rapidly maturing child.
Sometimes one well-written face will say more about humanity than a multi-figured composition with many characters.
The works of Truman Capote were filmed many times, he himself often acted in films (the writer generally gravitated towards self-demonstration). In 2005, Bennett Miller directed the film Capote. The film tells about the history of writing the novel "In Cold Blood". The film premiered on Truman Capote's birthday.
— Screen versions
- 1953 Beat the Devil
- 1958 Das Gluck sucht seine Kinder
- 1959 - Degrasharp
- 1961 Breakfast at Tiffany's
- 1965 Ruohojen harppu
- 1967 - The Thanksgiving Visitor
- 1967 - In Cold Blood
- 1969 - Trilogy
- 1972 - The Glass House
- 1992 Hello Stranger
- 1994 - One Christmas
- 1995 - Meadow Harp / The Grass Harp
- 1995 - Other Voices, Other Rooms
- 1996 - In Cold Blood
- 1997 - A Christmas Memory
- 2002 - Children on Their Birthdays
- Summer Cruise (Summer Crossing, novel, 1943, published 2005)
- Other Voices, Other Rooms (novel, 1948)
- The Tree of Night and Other Stories (A Tree of Night and Other Stories, short story collection, 1949). Includes the following eight stories:
- Evil Spirit (Master Misery)
- Children on Their Birthdays
- Shut a Final Door (Shut a Final Door)
- Jug of Silver
- Miriam (Miriam)
- The Headless Hawk
- I can tell that too (My Side of the Matter)
- Tree of Night (A Tree of Night)
- Local Color (Local Color, collection of essays, 1950)
- Voices of Grass (`The Grass Harp`, novel, 1951)
- Where the Muses Are Heard (The Muses Are Heard, essay, 1956)
- Breakfast at Tiffany's (Breakfast at Tiffany's, "a story and three stories", 1958). In addition to the title novel, it includes the following three short stories:
- Flower House (House of Flowers)
- Diamond Guitar (A Diamond Guitar)
- Memories of a Christmas (A Christmas Memory)
- In Cold Blood (documentary novel, 1965)
- Dogs Bark (The Dogs Bark: Public People and Private Places, essay anthology, 1973)
- Music for Chameleons (Music for Chameleons, anthology, 1980). Author's collection of short documentary fiction in three parts:
- Music for Chameleons (Music for Chameleons)
- Mr. Jones
- A Lamp in a Window
- Mojave
- Hospitality
- Dazzle
- Documentary story about one American crime (A Nonfiction Account of an American Crime)
- May Day (A Day's Work)
- Hello stranger! (Hello Stranger)
- Hidden Gardens
- Tore off (Derring-do)
- That's how it happened (Then It All Came Down)
- Beautiful child (A Beautiful Child)
- Nocturnal Turnings, or How Siamese Twins Have Sex (Nocturnal Turnings)
- Answered Prayers (Answered Prayers, unfinished novel, 1966-1980, published 1987)
- The Complete Stories of Truman Capote, 20 stories, 2004. Includes all stories from The Tree of the Night and Breakfast at Tiffany's, plus the following:
- The Walls Are Cold
- A Mink of One's Own
- The Shape of Things
- Preacher's Legend
- The Bargain (previously unpublished)
- One of the Paths to Eden (Among the Paths to Eden)
- The Thanksgiving Visitor
- Mojave
- One Christmas
- Too Brief a Treat: The Letters of Truman Capote, 2004
- Portraits and Observations: The Essays of Truman Capote, 2007
- Voices of Grass, 1971.
- Other voices, other rooms, 1995.
- Cold-blooded murder, 2001, 2004, 2008.
- Breakfast at Tiffany's, 2004, 2008.
- Evil spirit, 2005.
- Close the last door, 2006.
- Music for Chameleons, 2007.
- Summer cruise, 2008.
- Collected works in 3 volumes, 2008.
