Truman Capote was a tiny man with a voice like a glass-shattering flute and a mind that worked like a high-speed camera. He didn't just write books; he staged them. But if you’ve only seen the movies or scrolled through the social media clips of Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, you’re missing the actual weight of the man’s paper trail.
Honestly, most people think they know the "Tru" story. They think he was just a gossip who flew too close to the sun and got his wings clipped by the New York elite. That's part of it. But the real story is buried in the books on Truman Capote—both the ones he wrote and the ones written by the people who had to pick up the pieces after he died.
The Biography That Basically Defined Him
If you want to understand the man behind the mask, there is only one place to start. Gerald Clarke’s Capote: A Biography is the gold standard. It’s a massive, sprawling brick of a book that Clarke spent years researching while Truman was still alive.
You’ve got to appreciate the irony here. Truman was a man who lied about everything—his age, his lovers, how many words he could remember in a single sitting—yet he gave Clarke unprecedented access.
The book covers everything:
- His lonely childhood in Monroeville, Alabama (living next door to Harper Lee, no less).
- The meteoric rise of Other Voices, Other Rooms.
- The grueling, soul-sucking six years he spent in Kansas for In Cold Blood.
Clarke doesn't go easy on him. He tracks the descent into drug-fueled paranoia and the heartbreaking way Truman tried to buy love with expensive gifts he couldn't afford. It’s the definitive account, period. If you’re looking for a deep dive into the psyche of a genius who was also kind of a nightmare, this is the one.
The "Oral" History: Hearing the Voices
Then there’s George Plimpton’s Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances, and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career. This book is a completely different beast.
Plimpton didn't write a standard narrative. Instead, he interviewed hundreds of people and stitched their quotes together. It’s like being at the world's most crowded, slightly drunken cocktail party where everyone is talking about the same person behind his back.
You get the contradictions. One person says Truman was the most loyal friend they ever had; the next person says he was a "meretricious little viper." This format works because Truman was a performer. He changed his personality depending on who was in the room. Plimpton’s book captures that flickering, unstable identity better than any straight biography ever could.
The Controversy of In Cold Blood
We have to talk about the "Nonfiction Novel." When people search for books on Truman Capote, they usually end up back at In Cold Blood. It’s a masterpiece of suspense. It’s also, according to modern research, a bit of a lie.
For decades, Truman insisted every word was "95% accurate." He claimed he’d trained his memory to record long conversations without a notepad.
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But then the files came out.
Specifically, look into Ralph Voss’s Truman Capote and the Legacy of "In Cold Blood". Voss digs into the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) files and shows where Truman massaged the truth.
He made the lead detective, Alvin Dewey, look like a superhero. Why? Because the Deweys were his friends and his primary sources. He ignored the fact that other investigators actually did the heavy lifting. He even invented the ending—that famous, cinematic scene in the graveyard never actually happened.
It’s a reminder that Truman was always a novelist first and a journalist second. He wanted the truth of the story, even if the facts had to be bent to get there.
The Swans and the Ultimate Betrayal
If you’re obsessed with the high-society drama, Laurence Leamer’s Capote’s Women is your bible. This is the book that inspired the Ryan Murphy series. It focuses on the "Swans"—Babe Paley, Slim Keith, C.Z. Guest—and the betrayal that effectively ended Truman’s life.
Truman spent years promising a book called Answered Prayers. He told everyone it would be the American version of Proust. He bragged about it on talk shows. Then, in 1975, he published a chapter called "La Côte Basque, 1965" in Esquire.
It was a bloodbath.
He didn't even bother to change the names that much. He told the most intimate, shameful secrets of the women who had treated him like a brother. He thought they’d be flattered. They weren't. They excommunicated him instantly.
Leamer’s book is great because it gives these women their own voices. It shows that they weren't just "trophy wives"; they were complex, often lonely women who trusted the wrong person.
The Mystery of the Missing Manuscript
Did he ever actually finish Answered Prayers?
This is the "Holy Grail" of books on Truman Capote. When he died in 1984 at Joanne Carson’s house, people expected to find a completed manuscript in a safe deposit box.
They found nothing.
Well, they found three chapters. That’s what we have today in the posthumous publication of Answered Prayers: The Unfinished Novel. It’s brilliant, mean-spirited, and deeply sad.
Some people, like Joanne Carson, swore he finished it. She claimed he even read chapters to her that have never been seen. Others, like his partner Jack Dunphy, thought he’d been blocked for years and just kept the lie going to stay relevant.
Whatever the truth, the "unfinished" nature of his final work is the perfect metaphor for his life. He was a man who was always "becoming" something else, never quite reaching the version of himself he promised the world.
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Actionable Insights for Readers
If you want to actually "get" Truman Capote, don't just watch the documentaries. Follow this reading order for the most honest perspective:
- Start with Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It’s short, punchy, and much darker than the Audrey Hepburn movie. It shows his "light" period.
- Move to In Cold Blood. Read it as a thriller, but keep a skeptical mind.
- Read Gerald Clarke’s biography. This provides the context for why he wrote what he wrote.
- Finish with Answered Prayers. It’s the sound of a man burning his own house down.
Truman once said, "More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones." He got the fame, the money, and the access he always wanted. The books he left behind are the receipts for what that cost him.