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black and white photo from Jill Krementz of Truman Capote shot on July 1, 1980 with text beside it that reads: Capote 100: A Larger-than-life legacy, "All literature is gossip,"

Truman Capote was a literary pioneer whose impact on American literature remains unparalleled, revolutionizing the genre of true crime and elevating the art of the novella. We mark what would have been his hundredth year with his acclaimed books.

How many have you read?

Truman Capote

Truman Capote

Truman Capote was born September 30, 1924, in New Orleans. After his parents’ divorce, he was sent to live with relatives in Monroeville, Alabama. It was here he would meet his lifelong friend, the author Harper Lee. Capote rose to international prominence in 1948 with the publication of his debut novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms. Among his celebrated works are Breakfast at Tiffany’s, A Tree of Night, The Grass Harp, Summer Crossing, A Christmas Memory, and In Cold Blood, widely considered one of the greatest books of the twentieth century. Twice awarded the O. Henry Short Story Prize, Capote was also the recipient of a National Institute of Arts and Letters Creative Writing Award and an Edgar Award. He died August 25, 1984, shortly before his sixtieth birthday.

"Capote had an extraordinary gift for storytelling; he could take a mundane event and turn it into a work of art."

—Joan Didion

three black and white photographs of Truman Capote from Jill Krementz

Best Selling Books

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

In Cold Blood

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The most famous true crime novel of all time "chills the blood and exercises the intelligence" (The New York Review of Books)and haunted its author long after he finished writing it.

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. 

In one of the first non-fiction novels ever written, Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, generating both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence.

"Capote was a literary trailblazer, pushing the boundaries of what was possible in nonfiction and fiction alike."

—David Sedaris

Answered Prayers by Truman Capote
Answered Prayers by Truman Capote

Answered Prayers

Truman Capote’s unfinished final novel is an unsparing tell-all of New York high society that sent a seismic shock through the public and Capote’s own social circle.  

“Prose that makes the heart sing and the narrative fly.”—The New York Times Book Review

Catapulted from a childhood spent in a Missouri orphanage to the dizzying peaks of New York high society, the destitute and debauched writer P. B. Jones spends his days moving between the paltry cell of a Manhattan Y.M.C.A. and the opulent playgrounds of the metropolitan elite.  

Though Jones struggles to make ends meet, his effortless associations with the moneyed and powerful thrust him into sumptuous business offices, bohemian bars inhabited by the likes of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and the trendiest restaurants, where the tables are arranged by the social status of their occupants. Jones’s days and nights are a riptide of dysfunctional dinner parties and hobnobbing with drunken heiresses, accompanied by a carousel of legendary female characters who populated Capote’s own life, among them Colette, Jackie Kennedy, and the Duchess of Windsor. Indeed, Answered Prayers teems with the real-life secrets and confessions of Capote’s most trusted friends, and these pages, when first published as a magazine serial, astounded readers but betrayed his confidantes, banishing him from the exclusive circle that was once his.   

Unrestrained and irreverent, Answered Prayers renders a carnival of wealth and influence so unthinkable that it satirizes itself—with the inimitable wit of one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated writers.

“Capote’s ability to conjure a time, place and mood with just a few sentences is remarkable."

—Associated Press (about Answered Prayers)

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Holly Golightly knows that nothing bad can ever happen to you at Tiffany's. In this seductive, wistful masterpiece, Capote created a woman whose name has entered the American idiom and whose style is a part of the literary landscape—her poignancy, wit, and naïveté continue to charm.

This volume also includes three of Capote's best-known stories, “House of Flowers,” “A Diamond Guitar,” and “A Christmas Memory,” which the Saturday Review called “one of the most moving stories in our language.” It is a tale of two innocents—a small boy and the old woman who is his best friend—whose sweetness contains a hard, sharp kernel of truth.

"Truman Capote was a genius of his time."

—Haper Lee

A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote

A Christmas Memory

A holiday classic from "one of the greatest writers and most fascinating society figures in American history" (Vanity Fair)!

First published in 1956, this much sought-after autobiographical recollection from Truman Capote about his rural Alabama boyhood is a perfect gift for Capote's fans young and old.

Seven-year-old Buddy inaugurates the Christmas season by crying out to his cousin, Miss Sook Falk: "It's fruitcake weather!" Thus begins an unforgettable portrait of an odd but enduring friendship and the memories the two friends share of beloved holiday rituals.  

A Christmas Memory has been described as "[a] gem of a holiday story" (School Library Journal, starred review), and this warm and delicately illustrated edition is one you'll want to add to any Christmas or Capote collection.

"Capote's writing was like a finely crafted piece of jewelry, every word perfectly placed."

—Tom Wolfe

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