Truman Capote was born in New Orleans on September 30, 1924, the son of a salesman and a 16-year-old beauty queen. His father never stuck to any job for long and was always leaving home in search of new opportunities. The unhappy marriage gradually disintegrated. When Capote was four, his parents eventually divorced.

The young Truman was brought up in Monroeville, Alabama. After Capote's mother married again, this time a well-to-do businessman, Capote moved to New York and adopted his stepfather's surname.

At the age of seventeen, Capote ended his formal schooling. He went to Europe, where he wrote fiction and non-fiction. These European years marked the beginning of Capote's work for theater and films.

In 1958 he returned to the United States and wrote Breakfast at Tiffany's. Increasing preoccupation with journalism formed the basis for the bestseling book In Cold Blood, a pioneering work of documentary novel or nonfiction novel. The research work and writing took six years to finish.

Negative anecdotes about the people he knew distanced him from his friends.

Truman Capote died in Los Angeles, California, on August 26, 1984.