Truman Garcia Capote was an American novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, playwright, essay writer, and actor. He was one of the leading American writers of the postwar era. His prose is filled with clarity and quality. This literary celebrity pioneered a genre that he called ”the nonfiction novel.
He was a man whose childhood was troubled by the divorce of his parents. He had found his talent as a writer at a very younger age and thus honed his writing capability throughout his childhood. Truman started his professional career by writing short stories.
Throughout his career, Truman Capote remained one of the most controversial and colorful authors of America. He combined literary genius with a strong liking for the coruscant world of high society.
Although he wrote only a handful of books, his prose styling was without any fault. Additionally, Capote’s clear and deep perception of the psychology of human desire was extraordinary.
Truman Capote’s Biography
Truman Capote was born on September 30, 1924, in New Orleans, Louisiana. His father’s name was a salesman, named Archulus Persons (1897–1981). His mother was Lillie Mae Faulk (1905–1954). When Capote was only four, his parents got a divorce.
As a result, he was sent to Monroeville, Alabama, where he was brought up by his mother’s distant relative, Nanny Rumbley Faulk. Capote lived there for the following four years.
He shared a fast bond with the lady whom he called “Sook”. In Monroeville, Capote was a neighbor and became a friend with Harper Lee who also became an acclaimed author. She was a lifelong friend of Capote. In “To Kill A Mockingbird”, Lee has possibly modelled Dill’s characterization after Capote.
Because Capote was a lonely child, he taught himself how to read and write. He did all this before he could enter his first year of school. Many of Capote’s close ones often saw him at age five carrying his dictionary and notepad. He was so full of thirst for writing that he started writing fiction at age eleven. People around him gave him the nickname “Bulldog” at this age.
Once, around this age, Capote submitted a short story “Old Mrs. Busybody“ to a children’s writing contest. In 1936, He received recognition for his early work from The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
In 1932, Capote went to New York City to live with his mother. By that time, his mother got married to her second husband, José García Capote.
He was a bookkeeper who adopted Truman as his son and renamed him, Truman García Capote. However, José was convicted of defalcation; therefore, shortly afterwards, when the family faced a sudden and severe downturn, they were forced to leave Park Avenue.
Capote said about his early days that he wrote serious sorts of stories when he was eleven. He wrote more serious stuff because he was unlike other children. Other kids are excited to go home to play around, practice violin or piano but Capote used to go home from school to write for straight three hours because he was so obsessed with it.
In 1932, Capote went to the Trinity School in New York City. He then attended St. Joseph Military Academy. The Capote family shifted to Greenwich, Connecticut in 1939. There, Truman attended Greenwich High School. There, he started writing for both the school’s literary journal, The Green Witch, as well as the school newspaper.
When the family came back to New York City in 1941, he went to the Franklin School and graduated in 1942. That was the end of his formal education.
When Capote was still in the Franklin School in 1942, he started working as a copy boy in the art department at The New Yorker. He held this job two years before being fired for angering poet Robert Frost.
When he left his job, he started living with his relatives in Alabama. At that time, he began writing his first novel, Summer Crossing.
Writing Career of Truman Capote
Short Stories
Capote started his writing career from short stories at a younger age. In 2013, a Swiss publisher found that there are fourteen unpublished stories of Capote that were written when Capote was a teenager. A publishing house published these stories under the title of The Early Stories of Truman Capote.
From 1943 to 1946, Capote constantly wrote short fiction. It includes “Miriam” and “My Side of the Matter.” He also wrote, “Shut a Final Door” for which Capote received the O. Henry Award in 1948.
His stories were published in literary periodicals that were published every quarter. They were also published in famous magazines.
Capote had his technique for writing short stories. He said that every single story has its technical problems; therefore, one cannot generalize them. According to him, to find the right form of the story, it is necessary to find the most natural form of telling it. He differentiated between the divine natural shape of the story and otherwise.
For Capote, the good story is the one that triggers one’s imagination. On the other side, some stories silence one’s imagination by calling something absolute and final. Capote’s short stories belong to the former category.
Many publication houses drew advantage from the success of Capote’s writing to flourish their business.
Posthumously Novel
During the 1940s, Capote wrote a novel while in New York City. It was about the summer romance of a socially important person and a parking lot attendant. However, Capote claimed that he had destroyed the manuscript of this novel.
After twenty years after his death, the manuscript was found from the trash back in 1950 in an apartment that was once occupied by Capote. Eventually, the novel was published in 2006 under the title of Summer Crossing.
Capote’s First Novel: Other Voices, Other Rooms
Capote described the novel as a symbolic tale. For him, the novel was a poetic blowup in extremely silenced emotion. The novel is semi-autobiographical. It is about Capote’s M childhood in Alabama. The novel was an attempt by Capote to let unconsciously go of his demons.
According to many critics, notably Capote’s old friend John Malcolm Brinnin, say that Capote failed to join the ranks of the truly great American writers because he wasted most of his time, talent, and health on the pursuit of the status of a celebrity, signs of wealth, and worldly pleasures.
Capote said in 1978 that he had to be successful early. He thought that he was the wisest because he knows what he is going to do. Capote would laugh at others who didn’t know half of theirs what they are supposed to do. According to him, he had a special life; therefore, he did not need to work in an office. Capote had this strange idea that he would be successful at whatever he does.
Capote wanted to be rich and famous through writing. This success and celebrity status came to him at the age of twenty-three when he published Other Voices, Other Rooms. It was critical as well as a financial success for him.
In Cold Blood: Solidifying Capote’s Literary Claim and Fame
In Cold Blood solidified Capote’s literary claim and fame. It is a detailed, well researched, and painstaking description of a family. The book won him much praise, world-wide popularity, millions of dollars, and celebrity life.
Alcohol and Drug Problems of Truman Capote
Later on, to speed up his journey to gain further fame, Capote started to appear on talks shows on television. On the shows, he would talk about the scandalous stories of his friends. For this reason, he lost many friendships.
To deal with reality, Capote started drinking alcohol and drugs. It soon grew into addictions. Consequently, his general health feels down alarmingly. The once graceful and youthful Capote became abdominous and bald-hearted. In the late 1970s, he received treatment for alcoholism and drug abuse and went through surgery as well.
Capote’s Uniqueness
Capote said that he was so different from everyone because he was more intelligent, sensitive, and perceptive. He said that he has fifty perceptions at the time when people perceive with only five senses. For this reason, many people failed to understand him and this is how he started writing, to put down his thoughts on pages.
Truman Capote as an Important Player in the Gay Rights Movement
Capote was openly a homosexual person. One of his first serious lovers was Smith College literature professor Newton Arvin, to whom Capote even dedicated Other Voices, Other Rooms.
However, Capote spent most of his life until his death with Jack Dunphy who was a fellow writer. Through these people, Capote’s readers came to know about his real personality.
Dunphy writes that there was a huge difference between the Capote who he loved within their relationship and the Capote who was success-driven, and drug and alcohol addicted as well.
It provides a more in-depth look into Capote’s life outside his work.
Despite all these, Capote never fully accepted the gay rights movement. However, his openness about homosexuality and his support for openness in others makes him a significant member of the domain of gay rights.
Style and Themes in Fiction Work by Truman Capote
The writing style of an author makes his voice present in his or her writing through the unique use of his language and structure. For this reason, the writing style of every writer must be as obvious as a fingerprint.
In his fiction work, Capote’s most common themes are dread, anxiety, and uncertainty. He has a dark, depressing, complex, straight to the point, and elaborate detail in his writing. He holds back the information and lets the readers guess. He also has a lot of imagery in his work.
The stress and emotions of the characters are described in such a detailed manner that the readers can see every scene perfectly in their imagination. His characters move into isolated spaces. They idealize their childhood to avoid coming face to face with the insipidity of adult life.
Capote has also used his own childhood experience for content in his fiction work. For example, Other Voices, Other Rooms has a boy who learns to accept and deal with his homosexuality. In the same way, The Grass Harp has a boy who lives in the South with three elderly unmarried relatives.
In the same manner, the character of Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s shares some similarities with his mother. Through this character, he has come in terms with the reality that his mother left her husband and other loved ones. She moved to New York because she wanted to climb the ranks of society and reach the top level through relationships with powerful men.
His works also have dark psychological themes. Besides, In Cold Blood, Capote has a unique and mellifluous style of writing. Due to this work, he has been given the credit of inventing non-fiction novels. He has put a true story in the form of a conventional style of writing. Capote won an Edgar award for the best fact-crime when the book was published.
The style in Non-Fiction Work by Truman Capote
As far as non-fiction work is concerned, Capote was a versatile writer. He was a skilled journalist. He covered the arts, entertainment, and the travel beat. His nonfiction work, such as his profiles and his long-form project, In Cold Blood, has lengthy word-to-word quotations.
Capote claimed that he had this ability to record lengthy conversations mentally. For this reason, he committed his interviews to memory so that he can make his subjects feel at ease.
For Capote, taking notes or using a tape recorder creates artificiality and it even destroys the naturalness between the observer and the observed.
An objective Approach and a Mix of Fiction and Non-Fiction
Capote’s writing style is objective as well as ornate. He writes highly advanced prose. He combines the factual veracity of journalism with the affectional force of fiction. He understands well that suspense can be acquired by lengthy descriptions. He uses another technique by letting his characters speak extensively.
Capote once said that he wanted to put side by side the art of the novelist (fiction) and the techniques of journalism (non-fiction).