Truman Capote

Born

in New Orleans, Louisiana, The United States

September 30, 1924

Died

August 25, 1984

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Nonfiction

Influences

Marcel Proust, Henry James, E.M. Forster, Gustave Flaubert, Anton Che ...more

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Truman Capote was an American writer whose non-fiction, stories, novels and plays are recognised literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958) and In Cold Blood (1965), which he labeled a "non-fiction novel." At least 20 films and TV dramas have been produced from Capote novels, stories and screenplays.

He was born as Truman Streckfus Persons to a salesman Archulus Persons and young Lillie Mae. His parents divorced when he was four and he went to live with his mother's relatives in Monroeville, Alabama. He was a lonely child who learned to read and write by himself before entering school. In 1933, he moved to New York City to live with his mother and her new husband, Joseph Capote, a Cuban-born businessman. Mr. Capot ...more

Combine Editions
Truman Capote’s books

Average rating: 4.01 · 719,172 ratings · 28,775 reviews · 184 distinct works • Similar authors

	In Cold Blood 4.07 avg rating — 458,946 ratings — published 1965 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Breakfast at Tiffany's 3.89 avg rating — 190,402 ratings — published 1958 — 137 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Other Voices, Other Rooms 3.81 avg rating — 11,644 ratings — published 1948 — 85 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Christmas Memory 4.24 avg rating — 9,962 ratings — published 1956 — 29 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Music for Chameleons 4.07 avg rating — 7,839 ratings — published 1980 — 68 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Grass Harp, Including A Tree of Night and Other Stories 4.01 avg rating — 5,070 ratings — published 1956 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Summer Crossing 3.44 avg rating — 6,240 ratings — published 2005 — 62 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Complete Stories of Truman Capote by Truman Capote, Reynolds Price (Introduction) 4.20 avg rating — 4,754 ratings — published 1993 — 34 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Answered Prayers: The Unfinished Novel 3.49 avg rating — 3,161 ratings — published 1986 — 45 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Christmas Memory, One Christmas, & The Thanksgiving Visitor 4.27 avg rating — 2,288 ratings — published 1996 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Truman Capote…

Quotes by Truman Capote

“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”
― Truman Capote

tags: experience, failure, metaphor, success, wisdom

3490 likes

“Never love a wild thing, Mr. Bell,' Holly advised him. 'That was Doc's mistake. He was always lugging home wild things. A hawk with a hurt wing. One time it was a full-grown bobcat with a broken leg. But you can't give your heart to a wild thing: the more you do, the stronger they get. Until they're strong enough to run into the woods. Or fly into a tree. Then a taller tree. Then the sky. That's how you'll end up, Mr. Bell. If you let yourself love a wild thing. You'll end up looking at the sky."
"She's drunk," Joe Bell informed me.
"Moderately," Holly confessed....Holly lifted her martini. "Let's wish the Doc luck, too," she said, touching her glass against mine. "Good luck: and believe me, dearest Doc -- it's better to look at the sky than live there. Such an empty place; so vague. Just a country where the thunder goes and things disappear.”
― Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's

tags: love, wildness

1330 likes

“You call yourself a free spirit, a "wild thing," and you're terrified somebody's gonna stick you in a cage. Well baby, you're already in that cage. You built it yourself. And it's not bounded in the west by Tulip, Texas, or in the east by Somali-land. It's wherever you go. Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself.”
― Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's

909 likes

See all Truman Capote's quotes »

Polls

March 2018 Revisit the Shelf Reread

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, 489 pages, 1859, Last Read November 2014

48 votes, 12.3%

1984 by George Orwell, 328 pages, 1949, Last Read November 2015

35 votes, 9.0%

Persuasion by Jane Austen, 256 pages, 1817, Last Read August 2015

31 votes, 8.0%

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, 449 pages, 1938, Last Read May 2015

28 votes, 7.2%

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, 258 pages, 1989, Last Read January 2017

28 votes, 7.2%

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 671 pages, 1866, Last Read June 2014

26 votes, 6.7%

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, 867 pages, 1847, Last Read October 2011

26 votes, 6.7%

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë, 542 pages, 1848, Last Read April 2015

26 votes, 6.7%

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, 254 pages, 1890, Last Read November 2016

23 votes, 5.9%

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, 505 pages, 1853, Last Read August 2014

20 votes, 5.1%

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, 343 pages, 1966, Last Read November 2016

18 votes, 4.6%

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, 296 pages, 1929, Last Read September 2015

18 votes, 4.6%

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, 154 pages, 1900, Last Read February 2012

17 votes, 4.4%

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, 146 pages, 1962, Last Read September 2016

13 votes, 3.3%

The Iliad by Homer, 683 pages, -750, Last Read July 2012

12 votes, 3.1%

King Lear by William Shakespeare, 316 pages, 1603, Last Read October 2012

11 votes, 2.8%

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell, 251 pages, 1853, Lasr Read January 2015

9 votes, 2.3%

389 total votes

9 comments

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