Truman Capote, an open homosexual and one of America's more colorful literary personalities, was born in New Orleans in 1924 and died in California in 1984. A masterful stylist and also a well-known television personality, openly obsessed with fame.

In 1948 his first novel was published with the appearance of Other Voices, Other Rooms. His second novel, Breakfast at Tiffany's, was published in 1958, and in 1959 Capote began research on the Clutter family murders in Kansas, a crime of such senseless brutality that its equal had rarely been seen. This research formed the basis for In Cold Blood, which was published as a book later the same year.

Like Capote's first two books, In Cold Blood was a huge "best seller", and by 1983, according to the Washington Post, the book had brought the author $2 million in royalties.

Capote takes you beyond the newspaper headline in this incredible novel. It is more than just a crime novel though. It's a slice of life. Capote captures the mood of a small tiny town in the midst of catastrophe brilliantly.

Capote was becoming a world-famous personality ...

Truman Capote

Capote explained Anne Taylor Fleming, New York Times Magazine, "Many people spend half their lives not knowing. But I was avery special person, and I had to have a very special life. . . . I would have been successful at whatever I did. But I always knew that I wanted to be a writer and that I wanted to be rich and famous."

"I was so different from every one, so much more intelligent and sensitive and perceptive. I was having fifty perceptions a minute to everyone else's five. I always felt that nobody was going to understand me, going to understand what I felt about things. I guess that's why I started writing. At least on paper I could put down what I thought."

Truman Capote

- one of the most lyrical and most flamboyant, American writers of the 20th Century

    Works By Truman Capote:

• Other Voices, Other Rooms. New York. 1948.
• A Tree Of Night. New York. 1949.
• Local Color. New York. 1950.
• The Grass Harp. New York. 1951.
• The Grass Harp (the play). New York. 1952.
• The Muses Are Heard. New York. 1956.
• Breakfast At Tiffany's. New York. 1958.
• Observations. New York. 1959.
• Selected Writings. New York. 1963.
• In Cold Blood. New York. 1965.
• A Christmas Memory. New York. 1966.
• The Thanksgiving Visitor. New York. 1968.
• House Of Flowers. New York. 1968.
• Trilogy. New York. 1969.
• The Dogs Bark. New York. 1973.
• Music For Chameleons. New York. 1980.
• Miriam. Mankato, MN. 1982.
• One Christmas. New York. 1982.