Truman Capote Biography and latest books by Truman Capote

Truman Capote was born in 1924 in New Orleans, Louisiana. After his parents’ divorce, he moved to Monroeville, Alabama to stay with his mother’s relatives. Here, he became friends with Harper Lee legendary author of To Kill a Mocking Bird who was also his neighbor. He began to write when he was 11 and he used to travel to Mobile. He wrote ‘Old Mrs. Busybody’ for a children’s writing contest organized by the Mobile Press Register and his gift for writing was acknowledged at the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

In 1933, Capote went to live with his mother and stepfather in New York and studied at the Trinity School and then at Joseph Military Academy. He lived with them in Connecticut for a while and they returned to New York where he studied at the former Franklin School which is now called Dwight School. He ended his formal education here. He worked for the New Yorker and worked as a copyboy in the art department; however he was fired for ticking off poet Robert Frost. He began to write his first novel, Summer Crossing post leaving the job in Alabama.

Capote wrote several short stories from 1943 – 1946. His stories were published in The Atlantic Monthly, Harper\'s Bazaar, Harper\'s Magazine, Mademoiselle, The New Yorker, Prairie Schooner, and Story. He won the O’ Henry Award for his short story, Shut a Final Door.  His novel Other Voices, Other Rooms found its way to the New York Times Best Sellers’ list. His works reached Broadway and movies with the Grass Harp, House of Flowers, Beat the Devil (co-authored with John Houston), and The Muses are Heard. Then arrived Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences. He never completed writing another novel post In Cold Blood.

In the 70s Capote began to frequent rehabs as a result of nervous breakdowns and his dependence on drugs grew. He died in 1984 in Los Angeles suffering from liver cancer.