Home > Crime and Punishment in America > Truman Capote Biography

Born September 30, 1924 (New Orleans, Louisiana)

Died August 25, 1984 (Los Angeles, California)

Author

Truman Capote was an author who became famous as much for his eccentric personality as for his writing. Capote initially wrote dark, mystical fiction but later shifted toward nonfiction. He preferred writing more about people and places than about issues or ideas. Capote's professional reputation was established when he helped create a new literary form known as the nonfiction novel in 1966 with his book In Cold Blood about the brutal murder of a Kansas family. It is a style of writing that combines literature, with its creative license, and journalism, which adheres to the facts.