American writer Truman Capote: biography, creativity and interesting facts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:44

Coming from a dysfunctional family, Capote made a brilliant writing career and became famous throughout the world with his novel "In Cold Blood". In the article we will take a closer look at the work of this person.

Childhood

Truman Capote's biography began in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the son of 17-year-old Lilly May Faulk and salesman Arculus Strekfus. His parents divorced when he was 4 and he was sent to Monroeville, Alabama where he was raised by his mother's relatives for the next four to five years. He quickly became friends with a distant relative of his mother, Nanny Rumbly Faulk. In Monroeville, he became friends with his neighbor Harper Lee, who remained his best friend throughout his life.

As a lonely child, Truman Capote learned to read and write before he entered first grade. He was often seen at the age of 5with a dictionary and notebook in hand - it was then that he began to practice writing stories.

Short story period

Capote started writing full-length short stories at about 8 years old. In 2013, Swiss publisher Peter Haag discovered 14 unpublished stories written when Capote was a teenager in the New York Public Library Archives. Random House published them in 2015 as Truman Capote's Early Stories.

Between fame and obscurity

Random House, publisher of Other Voices, Other Rooms, began by publishing Truman Capote's 1949 book Voices of the Grass. In addition to "Miriam", this collection also includes stories such as "Close the Last Door", first published in The Atlantic Monthly (August 1947).

After The Voices of the Grass, Capote published a collection of his travel books, Local Color (1950), which included nine essays originally published in magazines between 1946 and 1950.

A largely autobiographical story set in the 1930s, A Memory of Christmas was published in Mademoiselle magazine in 1956. It was released as a standalone hardcover edition in 1966 and has since been published in many editions and anthologies. Truman Capote quotes from this book are often used as material for publications devoted to real biographywriter.

Other voices, other rooms

Truman Capote's literary fame began with the publication of the semi-autobiographical novel Other Voices, Other Rooms. At the same time, the general public drew attention to the frail, slightly eccentric homosexual, who would later conquer New York bohemia with his flamboyant literary style and incomparable sense of humor.

The plot of this novel is dedicated to 13-year-old Joel Knox, who recently lost his mother. Joel leaves New Orleans to live with his father, who left him at the time of his birth. Arriving at Scully-Scully, a huge, decaying mansion in rural Alabama, Joel meets his surly stepmother Amy, the depraved transvestite Randolph, and the defiant Idabel, a girl who becomes his friend. He also sees a spectral strange lady with "living curls" as he watches her from the top window.

Despite all of Joel's questions, his father's whereabouts remain a mystery. When he was finally allowed to see his father, Joel was stunned to discover that he was quadriplegic. His father ended up falling down the stairs after being accidentally shot by Randolph. Joel escapes with Idabel, but catches pneumonia and eventually returns to Scully-Scully.

Truman Capote: "Breakfast at Tiffany's"

"Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Short Novel and Three Stories" (1958) combined the titular novella and three shorter stories: "House of Flowers", "Diamond Guitar" and"Christmas Memory" The novel's protagonist, Holly Golightly, became one of Capote's most famous creations, and the book's prose style led Norman Mailer to call Capote "the most accomplished writer of my generation."

The story itself was originally to be published in the July 1958 issue of Harper's Bazaar, a few months before its publication in book form by Random House. But Harper's publisher Hearst Corporation began demanding changes to Capote's tart literary language, which he reluctantly did, because he liked the photographs by David Attie and the design work by Harper's Bazaar art director Alexei Brodovich to accompany the text.

But despite his efforts, the story was still not published. His authorial literary language and storyline were still considered "unsuitable", and there was concern that Tiffany, a major advertiser, would react negatively to the publication of the book. Insulted, Capote resold the novella to Esquire magazine in November 1958.

Truman Capote: "In Cold Blood"

The new book In Cold Blood: A True Tale of Mass Murder and Its Consequences (1965) was inspired by a 300-word article published on November 16, 1959 in The New York Times. It described the inexplicable murder of the Clutter family in rural Holcomb, Kansas, and included a quote from the local sheriff: "There appears to be a psychopath at work here."killer".

Fascinated by this short piece of news, Capote drove with Harper Lee to Holcomb and visited the scene. Over the next few years, he got to know everyone involved in the investigation and most of the people in the small town and area. Instead of taking notes during interviews, Capote memorized every conversation and painstakingly wrote down every quote he could remember from the interviewed people. He claimed to be able to remember over 90% of what he heard.

Fatal Affair

"In Cold Blood" was published in 1966 by Random House after being serialized in The New Yorker. The "non-fiction novel," as Capote called it, brought him literary recognition and became an international bestseller, but the acclaimed writer has not published another novel since.

Severe criticism

But fate has not been so kind to Truman Capote - reviews of his best novel have not always been favorable, especially in the UK. A feud between Capote and British critic Kenneth Tynan erupted in the pages of The Observer following Tynan's review of In Cold Blood. The critic was sure that Capote always wanted the execution of the murder suspects described in the novel to take place, so that the book would have a spectacular ending.

Tynan wrote: "Ultimately we are talking about responsibility: the duty that the writer,perhaps has in front of those who provide him with literary material - down to the last autobiographical parentheses - which is for any author a livelihood … For the first time, an influential writer of the first rank was placed in a privileged proximity with criminals ready to die, and, in my opinion, he did nothing to save them. In the center of attention, priorities are sharply narrowed, and what should come first: a successful job or the life of two people? An attempt to help (by providing new psychiatric evidence) can easily fail, and in Capote's case, proof that he never really tried to save them."

Private life

Capote did not hide his belonging to sexual minorities. One of his first serious partners was Smith College literature professor Newton Arvin, who won the National Book Award for his biography in 1951, and to whom Capote dedicated Other Voices, Other Rooms. Nevertheless, Capote spent most of his life with his collaborator Jack Dunphy. In his book Dear Genius…: A Memoir of My Life with Truman Capote, Dunphy tries to describe the Capote he knew and loved in his relationship, calling him the most successful and lamenting that in the end, the writer's drug and alcoholism ruined both their joint personal life and his career.

Dunphy provides perhaps the deepest and most intimate look into Capote's life outside of his own work. Although Capote and Dunphy's relationship lastedmost of Capote's life, sometimes it seems that they lived different lives. Their separate housing allowed both to maintain mutual independence in the relationship and, as Dunphy acknowledged, "saved him from the painful contemplation of Capote drinking and taking drugs."

Capote was well known for his very unusual high pitch and strange vocal mannerisms, as well as his unusual dressing and bizarre concoctions. He often claimed to know people he had never actually met, such as Greta Garbo. He claimed to have had numerous affairs with men who were considered heterosexual, including, according to him, with Errol Flynn. He traveled an eclectic circle of social circles, interacting with authors, critics, business moguls, philanthropists, Hollywood and theater celebrities, aristocrats, monarchs, and members of the upper classes - both in the US and abroad.

Part of his public life has been a long-standing rivalry with writer Gore Vidal. Their rivalry prompted Tennessee Williams to complain, "It's like they're fighting each other for some kind of gold prize." Apart from the authors with whom he had a love affair (Villa Cater, Isak Dinesen, and Marcel Proust), Capote had little regard for other writers. However, one of the few who received his favorable approval was the journalist Lacey Fosburgh, author of Closing Time: The True Story of the Gubab Murder (1977). He also expressed admirationAndy Warhol's book "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: from A to B and back".

Although Capote has never been fully involved in the gay rights movement, his own openness to homosexuality and his encouragement of others' openness makes him an important figure in the field of sexual deviant rights. In his article Capote and the Trillions: Homophobia and Literary Culture in the Mid-Century, Jeff Solomon details the meeting between Capote and Lionel and Diana Trilling, two New York intellectuals and literary critics. Capote then heavily criticized Lionel Trilling, who recently published a book about E. M. Forst, but ignored the author's homosexuality.

Death of a writer

Capote died in 1984 from he alth problems caused by drug and alcohol abuse. Since the time of "Cold-Blooded Murder" he never finished a single novel, he became very stout, bald and addicted to illegal substances. It was a bitter price that Truman Capote paid for his popularity. In Monroeville, Alabama, the Capote House Museum is still functioning, which houses his personal letters and various things from the writer's childhood.

Reviews on some works

"Miriam" is rated "fairytale, psychological" and an excellent study guide for dual personality disorder.

Reynolds Price notes that two of Capote's early short works, "Miriam" along with "Pitchersilver", reflect his familiarity with other young writers, especially Carson McCuller.

Readers have noted the symbolism in the story, in particular the use of flowers in clothing. Blue, Mrs. Miller's favorite color, is perceived as a symbol of sadness. Purple is seen as a symbol of we alth, while white is seen as a symbol of purity, goodness and he alth. Notably, Miriam often wears white, and many times during the story it snows and the snow is also white. The Hebrew origin of the name "Miriam" can be translated as "wish for a child", which could explain much of what Mrs. Miller wants and sees in her young visitor. Miriam can be seen as a symbol of the angel of death.

Capote also comments on the themes of identity that underlie the story: "… The only thing she lost for Miriam was her identity, but now she knew she had found the person who lived in that room again."

Critics praised with might and main and "Voices of Grass". The New York Herald Tribune praised the novel as "wonderful… blended with gentle laughter, charming human warmth and a sense of positive quality of life." Atlantic Monthly commented that "Voices of the Grass" captivates you because you share the author's sense that there is a special poetry - spontaneity, surprise and delight - in a life unsullied by common sense. "Sales of this book reached 13,500, which is more than twice as many as Capote's previous two works.

Book "Voicesgrass" was Truman Capote's personal favorite, despite being criticized as too sentimental.

In her article "Breakfast at Sally Bowles", Ingrid Norton of Open Letters pointed to Capote's debt to Christopher Isherwood, one of his mentors, in creating the character of Holly Golightly: "Breakfast at Tiffany's" has a lot to do with personal crystallization Capote Sally of Isherwood Bowles".

Truman Capote's aunt, Marie Rudisill, notes that Holly is the prototype for Miss Lily Jane Bobbitt, the main character in his short story "Children on Their Birthdays". She notes that both characters are "free, eccentric wanderers, dreamers striving for their own ideal of happiness." Capote himself admitted that Gollightly was his favorite character.

The novella-style poetry prompted Norman Mailer to call Capote "the most perfect writer of my generation", adding that he "wouldn't change two words in Breakfast at Tiffany's."

Writing an article in The New York Times, Conrad Knickerbocker praised Capote's ability to detail details throughout the novel and declared the book "a masterpiece, agonizing, horrific, obsessive proof that times so prosperous in describing catastrophes are still able to give the world a genuine tragedy."

In a 1966 critical review of the novel by The New Republic, Stanley Kaufman, criticizing Capote's writing style throughout the novel, claims that he"demonstrates on almost every page that he is the most outrageously overrated stylist of our time", and then claims that "the depth in this book is no deeper than the mine of its factual details, its height is rarely higher than that of good journalism, and often falls even below her."

Tom Wolfe wrote in his essay "Porn Violence": "The book is neither because the answers to both questions are known from the start… Instead, the anticipation for the book is based largely on a brand new idea in detective stories: promising details and holding them until the end."

Reviewer Keith Colkhun argues that "In Cold Blood", for which Capote wrote 8,000 pages of research notes, is built and structured with strained writing talent. Careful prose connects the reader to his unfolding story. Simply put, the book was conceived as an investigative journalism and was born as a novel.

Answered Prayers: An Unfinished Novel

The title of the book refers to a quote from Saint Teresa of Ávila that Capote chose as his epigraph: "More tears are shed for answered prayers than unanswered prayers."

According to editor Joseph M. Fox's 1987 edition note, Capote signed the original contract for the novel, purported to be a modern American counterpart to Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, on January 5, 1966, with Random House. This agreement provided for an advance of 25,000US dollars with a delivery date of January 1, 1968.

Summer Cruise: Capote's Lost Novel

Capote began writing "Summer Cruise" in 1943 while working for The New Yorker. After an evening stroll through Monroeville, Alabama, and inspired to write his first published novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, he set aside the manuscript. On August 30, 1949, Capote, while vacationing in North Africa, informed his publisher that he was about two-thirds of his first really big project. He spoke optimistically of completing the manuscript by the end of the year, even vowing that he would not return to the United States until he had done so, but he never promised his publisher more than one project a year. Capote has been making small changes to his work for about 10 years.

Robert Linscott, Capote's senior editor at Random House, was unimpressed with the novel's outline. He said he thought it was a good novel, but it didn't show Capote's "distinctive art style". After reading the project several times, Capote noted that the novel was well written and very stylish, but for some reason he himself did not like it. In particular, Capote began to fear that the novel was too subtle, abstruse, slurred. Capote later claimed to have destroyed the unpolished manuscript, along with several other prose notebooks, in a fit of inadequate self-criticism.

A number of writings, including the manuscript of "Summer Cruise", are preserved in an apartment on Brooklynheights where Capote lived around 1950. After the death of the house nanny, his nephew discovered Capote's papers and put them up for auction in 2004. The documents did not sell at auction because of the high price and because the physical documents did not grant publication rights to the work, which were owned by the Truman Capote Literary Foundation. Subsequently, the New York Public Library reached an agreement to purchase the papers and archive them in its permanent collection dedicated to the great writer. After consultation with Capote's lawyer, "Summer Cruise" was published in 2005. The first edition was set forth in Capote's original manuscript, which was written in four school notebooks and 62 additional notes, followed by a word from Alan W. Schwartz. An excerpt from the story was also featured in The New Yorker, October 24, 2005.