Truman Capote

Truman Streckfus Persons was born September 30, 1924, into a childhood broken by divorce and his mother's long absence, moving frequently and deciding by age eight that he would write. He sharpened the craft early, breaking through professionally with the short story "Miriam" in 1945, which caught the eye of Random House publisher Bennett Cerf and led to a contract for his first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, in 1948. Widespread acclaim arrived with Breakfast at Tiffany's in 1958, the novella about fictional café society girl Holly Golightly. Then came In Cold Blood in 1966, a true crime book about a murdered Kansas farm family that took six years to write with help from his lifelong friend Harper Lee, and which established him as a founder of New Journalism alongside Talese, Thompson, Mailer, Didion, and Wolfe. He died August 25, 1984, leaving work that has been adapted into more than twenty films and television productions.