Truman Streckfus Persons was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on September 30, 1924. His mother’s relatives raised him until 1933 when he moved to New York with his mother and her second husband, Joseph Capote. His stepfather adopted him and renamed him Truman Garcia Capote in 1935. As a young boy, Truman attended Trinity School where he passed an IQ test with the inconceivable score of 2i5, the highest in the history of the school. He went on to attend high school, but his formal education ended when he was seventeen years of age.
One of his neighbors, Harper Lee, author of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” used Truman as the inspiration for her character of Dill. Capote often implied that he had written a considerable portion of her novel, but this allegation has never been proven to be true. Fame came to Capote after a 300-word article in the “New York Times” about the unsolved murder of a family in rural Kansas. Harper Lee assisted him during his research of the novel that would make him famous, “In Cold Blood.” He had been well known in literary circles, but the publication of this book soared him to new heights of fame among the masses.
The film, “Capote” (2005), focuses on the conflict between the author’s obsession with finishing the book and his compassion for both the killers and their victims! He admitted that he almost fell in love with handsome killer, Perry Smith, and felt bad because he knew that his death by hanging would make him a famous writer.
In later life, he was a recluse, dying from an overdose of pills at age 59 on August 25, 1984, in the home of Joanne Carson, former wife of the late Johnny Carson.
Capote twice won the O’Henry Memorial Short Story Prize and was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He wrote more than twenty books in a career that spanned almost four decades. His squeaky voice and overtly homosexual life style may have offended some, but Truman Capote was a gifted writer and a literary genius, the likes of which do not pass this way very often. May he rest in whatever he thought was peace.
What are some of YOUR favorite Truman Capote writings? Please share.