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An American original, Truman Capote was one of the best writers of his generation, a superb and almost matchless stylist. His short stories made him a literary celebrity while still in his teens, and for the next thirty years he was a comet of genius, fame, and finally self-destruction. His first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, published in 1948, was followed ten years later by Breakfast at Tiffany's, which introduced to the world one of American literature's most endearing heroines, the irrepressible Holly Golightly. In the 1960s came the phenomenal success of In Cold Blood, a true-crime story whose novelistic techniques have influenced non-fiction writers ever since. A much-sought-after dinner guest among the rich and famous, Capote reciprocated in 1966 with a party that made headlines, his black-and-white ball at Manhattan's Plaza Hotel. The trauma of researching and writing In Cold Blood had shaken him, however, and even as he reached the heights, Capote was beginning a losing battle with drugs and alcohol. In 1975 he published a chapter from an uncompleted novel, Answered Prayers, in Esquire magazine. The unflattering, thinly disguised portraits of some of his rich friends provoked a furious reaction, and the comet that had risen so swiftly fell even faster. Capote died in 1984, just short of his sixtieth birthday. Capote's is an astonishing story, and Gerald Clarke's biography, first published in 1988, tells it in all its many dimensions. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews with Capote himself, as well as interviews with nearly everyone else who knew him, it is now recognized as a masterpiece of literary art.
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Ron Stevens
reviewed Capote: A Biography on February 21, 2017
Capote: A Biography
Truman Capote died at age 59 in 1984; this 1988 biography by TIME writer Gerald Clarke, despite a welter of Capote books concurrent with the two similar biopic movies a dozen years ago, and continuing interest in the "Tiny Terror," this still is the best general-interest bio (IMO). Clarke set himself the unenviable task of covering all of Capote's life, but he performs marvelously. Rarely have I read a general-interest literary biography that discusses any author, his demons, his sexuality, and his works with equal aplomb. It's also illustrated: here's where, among other people, you can see Truman Mambo-ing with Marilyn Monroe in 1955, and from that same era the placid Herbert Clutter family of IN COLD BLOOD posing before the Christmas tree, not knowing what awaited them.
So many versions of this estimable book have appeared over the years (hardcover, trade pbk., two-movie tie-ins, reissues) that if one could line them up and arrange them, they'd provide a gallery of Capote likenesses running all the way from late youth to late life. The trade paperback has, understandably, been a steady seller in various covers since its introduction; the hardcover is not too difficult to locate used. Sadly, the most recent trade paperback (with Capote back on the cover) dispenses with "slick paper" for its photos, leaving the black-and-white reproductions muddy and vague. Even so, I hope Clarke's masterwork will continue to spur interest in Capote's career and wide variety of screenplays like BEAT THE DEVIL, stories like "Breakfast at Tiffany's," novels like OTHER VOICES, OTHER ROOMS and nonfiction like the magisterial IN COLD BLOOD; there are more of them in print today than at any single time during Capote's life.
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Add Capote: A Biography, An American original, Truman Capote was one of the best writers of his generation, a superb and almost matchless stylist. His short stories made him a literary celebrity while still in his teens, and for the next thirty years he was a comet of genius, fam, Capote: A Biography to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
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Add Capote: A Biography, An American original, Truman Capote was one of the best writers of his generation, a superb and almost matchless stylist. His short stories made him a literary celebrity while still in his teens, and for the next thirty years he was a comet of genius, fam, Capote: A Biography to your collection on WonderClub |