Truman Capote


Born
in New Orleans, Louisiana, The United States
September 30, 1924

Died
August 25, 1984

Genre

Influences


Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

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 wi
...more

Average rating: 4.0 · 1,118,323 ratings · 57,034 reviews · 379 distinct worksSimilar authors
In Cold Blood

4.09 avg rating — 714,540 ratings — published 1966 — 510 editions
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Breakfast at Tiffany’s and ...

3.83 avg rating — 288,023 ratings — published 1958 — 459 editions
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A Christmas Memory

by
4.24 avg rating — 17,567 ratings — published 1956 — 95 editions
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Other Voices, Other Rooms

3.75 avg rating — 17,398 ratings — published 1948 — 82 editions
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Music for Chameleons

4.09 avg rating — 11,621 ratings — published 1980 — 118 editions
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Summer Crossing

3.41 avg rating — 11,328 ratings — published 2005 — 91 editions
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The Complete Stories of Tru...

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4.18 avg rating — 6,422 ratings — published 1993 — 6 editions
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The Grass Harp, Including A...

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 6,363 ratings — published 1956 — 34 editions
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A Christmas Memory: One Chr...

4.28 avg rating — 5,652 ratings — published 2008 — 16 editions
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Answered Prayers

3.34 avg rating — 6,678 ratings — published 1986 — 82 editions
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More books by Truman Capote…

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Quotes by Truman Capote  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

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

“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 and Three Stories

“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 and Three Stories

Polls

September 2022 Revisit the Shelves Poll

Villette by Charlotte Brontë (1853) 573 pages, Last read in April 2017
 
  46 votes, 21.4%

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind (1985) 263 pp., last read July 2015
 
  40 votes, 18.6%

Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories by Truman Capote (1958) 142 pages - only the title story - last read Oct. 2016
 
  36 votes, 16.7%

Beowulf by Unknown (900) 160 pages, last read April 2015.
 
  29 votes, 13.5%

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985) 314 pages, last read Feb. 2017.
 
  27 votes, 12.6%

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850) 279 pp. last read in 2017
 
  23 votes, 10.7%

Moby-Dick or, the Whale by Herman Melville (1851), 654 pages, last read as a long-read April-June 2017
 
  14 votes, 6.5%

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