Truman

Truman Capote's full Biography can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truman_Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons was born on September 30, 1924, in New Orleans, Louisiana. His parents divorced when he was 4 and he was sent to be raised by his elderly aunts in Alabama. As a child he turned to writing to relieve his loneliness. In 1933 he was sent to live with his mother and step father, who adopted him and gave him the name Truman García Capote. He dropped out of school at the age of 17 and began a two year job with the New Yorker. Between 1943-1946 he wrote many short stories including “A Mink of One's Own," "My Side of the Matter," "Preacher's Legend," "Shut a Final Door" and "The Walls Are Cold." "The Walls Are Cold." These stories were published in both literary quarterlies and well-known magazines. In 1943 he wrote his first novel Summer Crossing which he claimed to have lost, but was later stolen by a house sitter. In 2004 it resurfaced and was published in 2005.
Other Voices, Other Rooms was published in 1948 and stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 9 weeks, selling more than 26,000 copies. Other Voices, Other Rooms received instant notoriety for its fine prose, its frank discussion of homosexual themes, and perhaps most of all, for its erotically suggestive photograph of Capote himself. The promotion and controversy surrounding this novel catapulted Capote to fame.
Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Short Novel and Three Stories brought together the title novella and three shorter tales: "House of Flowers," "A Diamond Guitar" and "A Christmas Memory." The heroine of "Breakfast at Tiffany's," Holly Golightly, became one of Capote's best-known creations, and the book's prose style prompted Norman Mailer to call Capote "the most perfect writer of my generation." With the publication of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the subsequent hit film staring Audrey Hepburn, Capote’s popularity and place among the upper crust was assured.
In 1959, Capote set about creating a new literary genre—the non-fiction novel. In Cold Blood, the book that most consider his masterpiece is the story of the 1959 murder of the four members of a Kansas farming family, the Clutters. Capote left his jet-set friends and went to Kansas, with fellow writer and childhood friend Harper Lee, to delve into the small-town life and record the process by which they coped with this loss. During his stay, the two murderers were caught, and Capote began and involved interview with both. For six years, he became enmeshed in the lives of both the killer and the townspeople, taking thousands of pages of notes. Of In Cold Blood, Capote said, “This book was an important event for me. While writing it, I realized I just might have found a solution to what had always been my greatest creative quandary. I wanted to produce a journalistic novel, something on a large scale that would have the credibility of fact, the immediacy of film, the depth and freedom of prose, and the precision of poetry.” In Cold Blood sold out instantly, and became on the most talked about books of it’s time. An instant classic, In Cold Blood brought its author millions of dollars and a fame unparalleled by nearly any other literary author since.
Capote stood at just over 5'2" (159 cm) and was openly gay in a time when it was common among artists, but rarely talked about. Capote was well known for his distinctive, high-pitched voice and odd vocal mannerisms, his offbeat manner of dress and his fabrications. He traveled in eclectic circles, hobnobbing with authors, critics, business tycoons, philanthropists, Hollywood and theatrical celebrities, royalty and members of high society, both in the U.S. and abroad. Part of his public persona was a long-standing rivalry with writer Gore Vidal. Apart from his favorite authors (Willa Cather, Isak Dinesen), Capote had faint praise for other writers.
November 28, 1966, in honor of Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, Capote hosted a legendary masked ball, called the Black & White Ball, in the Grand Ballroom of New York City's Plaza Hotel. It was considered the social event of not only that season but of many to follow. The New York Times and other publications gave it considerable coverage, and Deborah Davis wrote an entire book about the event, Party of the Century.
Despite the assertion earlier in life that one "lost an IQ point for every year spent on the West Coast," he purchased a home in Palm Springs and began to indulge in a more aimless lifestyle and heavy drinking. This resulted in bitter quarreling with the more retiring Jack Dunphy (with whom he had shared a non-exclusive relationship since the 1950s). Their partnership changed form and continued as a nonsexual one, and they were separated during much of the 1970s.
Through his jet-set social life Capote had been discreetly conducting research, unbeknownst to his friends and benefactors, for his tell-all Answered Prayers (eventually to be published as Answered Prayers: The Unfinished Novel). The book is a biting and largely factual account of the glittering world in which he moved. The publication of the first few chapters in Esquire magazine in 1975 caused a major scandal. Columnist Liz Smith explained, “He wrote what he knew, which is what people always tell writers to do, but he just didn’t wait till they were dead to do it."
In an ironic twist, Andy Warhol (who had made a point of seeking out Capote when he first arrived in New York) provided the author with the platform for his next artistic renewal. Warhol, who often partied with Capote at Studio 54, agreed to paint Capote's portrait as "a personal gift" — rather than for the six-figure sums he usually charged — in exchange for Capote contributing short pieces to Warhol's Interview magazine every month for a year. Out of this creative burst came the pieces that would form the basis for the bestselling Music for Chameleons (1980). To celebrate this unexpected renaissance, he underwent a facelift, lost weight and experimented with hair transplants. Nevertheless, Capote was unable to overcome his reliance upon drugs and liquor and had grown bored with New York by the turn of the 1980s.
Capote died, according to the coroner's report, of "liver disease complicated by phlebitis and multiple drug intoxication" at the age of 59 on August 25, 1984, in the home of his old friend Joanne Carson in Los Angeles, ex-wife of late-night TV host Johnny Carson, on whose program Capote had been a frequent guest. He was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Capote twice won the O. Henry Memorial Short Story Prize and was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.