“All literature is gossip”- Truman Capote.

The 2005 film 'Capote' made his name widely recognised but, more often than not, you will still hear the words “Truman, who?” So let's answer it, shall we? Truman Capote is one of the greatest American authors of all time. He's penned some of the truly great books, 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' for one, 'In Cold Blood' for another but, somehow, his name is not as familiar as one would expect.

Capote was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on September 30, 1924 and died August 25, 1984. When he was four his parents divorced and he was sent to live in Monroeville, Alabama, with his mother's relatives. It was here that Truman first met Harper Lee and the two became life-long friends. Capote was a character in Harpers 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and Lee would later travel to Holcomb, Kansas, with Capote to investigate the murder of the Clutter family.

Capote was, somewhat, of a lonely child. He taught himself to read and write before he started the first grade. Many people would later suggest that it was Capote's isolated childhood which helped form his unique style of writing. In 1933, aged nine, Truman relocated to New York to live with his mother and her second husband Joseph Capote, who adopted Truman.

When he was eleven he began writing seriously. “I began writing really sort of seriously when I was about eleven. I say seriously in the sense that like other kids go home and practice the violin or the piano or whatever, I used to go home from school every day and I would write for about three hours. I was obsessed by it,” Capote said of this time.

In 1939 the Capotes' moved to Connecticut where Truman attended Greenwich High School. He wrote for the school's literary journal, The Green Witch, and the school newspaper. In 1942, back in New York, he graduated from the Dwight School where an award is now given annually in his name. At 17 he began a two-year job at The New Yorker. Of this time Capote said it was “not a very grand job. Still, I was fortunate to have it, especially since I was determined never to set a studious foot inside a college classroom. I felt that either one was or wasn't a writer, and no combination of professors could influence the outcome. I still think I was correct, at least in my own case."

Between 1943-1946 Truman wrote a large amount of short fiction. A Mink of One's Own, Miriam (for which he won an O. Henry Award), My Side of the Matter, Preacher's Legend, Shut a Final Door and The Walls are Cold. These short stories were published in literary quarterlies and famous magazines including: Harper's Bazaar and The New Yorker.

In 1943 Capote wrote his first novel Summer Crossing, about socialite Grady O'Neil and her summer romance with a parking attendant. Capote later claimed to have destroyed this work and it was regarded as lost. However, it was later stolen by a Capote house sitter hired to watch his Brooklyn apartment in 1966. It resurfaced in 2004 and was published by Random House in 2005. Many claim that Capote hated this work. Reviews have stated the opposite.

“It is identifiably the work of one of the twentieth century's great writers. Capote may not have chosen to publish it, but in this case we are lucky that others did,” said Rachel Cusk. The Financial Times called it 'an extraordinary find'. The Guardian shared their views calling Capote's debut novel 'glorious...told with jagged lighting-bursts of brilliance.”

Many a Capote fan would agree. “By far his best novel. I just can't describe how beautifully written his work, especially Summer Crossing, is. It's just indescribable. Beautifully indescribable.”

Other Voices, Other Rooms was published in 1948. It stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for nine weeks, sold more than 26,000 copies and the promotion and controversy surrounding this novel catapulted Capote to fame. Random House followed the success of Other Rooms with A Tree of Night and Other Stories, published in 1949. After Tree of Night was published Capote travelled around Europe and fell into depression. This time led to a collection of travel essays which can be found in Truman's later work Music for Chameleons.

Possibly his most famous work, Breakfast at Tiffany's was published in 1958. It told the story of Holly Golightly, a girl with an unknown past who is somewhat of an enigma. The book's prose prompted Norman Mailer to call Capote “the most perfect writer of my generation”. Capote's novella was later turned into the Audrey Hepburn film of the same name. The film and novella differ greatly. Capote did not approve of the changes and did not approve of Hepburn for the role of Golightly. He would have much preferred, friend, Marilyn Monroe of whom he called a “beautiful child”.

After Breakfast came In Cold Blood where Truman spent four years, on and off, in Western Kansas doing research for the novel and, then, the film. The novel was written in a very unique style which Capote later called a “non-fiction novel”. It was published in 1966 and bought Capote to literary acclaim but there were some who questioned certain events in the novel. Phillip K. Tompkins was one of those />
“Capote has, in short, achieved a work of art. He has told exceedingly well a tale of high terror in his own way. But, despite the brilliance of his self-publicising efforts, he has made both a tactical and a moral error that will hurt him in the short run. By insisting that “every word” of his book is true he has made himself vulnerable to those readers who are prepared to examine seriously such a sweeping claim.”

Capote was well known for being openly homosexual at a time when it was not considered wise to be so. He often claimed to intimately know people he had never met, such as Greta Garbo, and travelled in eclectic circles. In the 1970's he was in and out of rehab clinics. In 1978 in a live on air interview Capote confessed he may kill himself. One year later he arranged to return to the same talk show and revealed salacious information about Lee Radziwill and her sister Jackie Kennedy Onassis.

From a sudden creative burst came Music for Chameleons (1980). After this Capote underwent a facelift and lost weight. However, he was unable to lose his dependence to drugs and alcohol. Capote lost his battle in Los Angeles, California, and died at the age of 59, of a liver disease caused by his drug and alcohol abuse.

A long time Capote rival, Gore Vidal, said: "he mistook the rich who liked publicity for the ruling class, and made himself far too much at home among them, only to find that he was to them no more than an amusing pet who would be dispensed with, as he was when he published lurid gossip about them."

Despite his dependence on drugs and alcohol and his betrayal of close friends and confidants Capote was, and still is, a great writer for the times. You may not have known his name but you do
now.