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Truman
Capote's unorthodox childhood had a profound effect on his future
life. Raised in the south by some relatives of his troubled young
mother, he met quite a few of the people who would be the inspiration
for some of his most famous and well-loved characters. Throughout his tumultuous youth, Capote's constant companion were his books and his writings, just as they would continue to be for the rest of his life. |
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As a lonely child, Capote taught himself to read and write before he entered the first grade in school. Capote was often seen at age five carrying his dictionary and notepad, and he began writing when he was ten.
On Saturdays, he
made trips from Monroeville to Mobile, and when he was ten, he
submitted his short story, "Old Mrs. Busybody," to a children's writing
contest sponsored by the Mobile
Press Register.
In 1933, he moved to New York City to live with his mother and her second husband, Joseph Capote, a Cuban-born textile broker, who adopted his stepson and renamed him Truman García Capote. However, Joseph turned out to be an embezzler and shortly afterwards his income crashed and the family faced moving out of Park Avenue, Truman's mother committed suicide via an overdose of sleeping pills. When he was 11, he began writing seriously in daily three-hour sessions. Of his early days Capote related, "I began writing really sort of seriously when I was about eleven. I say seriously in the sense that like other kids go home and practice the violin or the piano or whatever, I used to go home from school every day and I would write for about three hours. I was obsessed by it." In 1935, he attended the Trinity School. He then attended St. Joseph's military academy. In 1939, the Capotes moved to Greenwich, Connecticut, and Truman attended Greenwich High School, where he wrote for both the school's literary journal, The Green Witch, and the school newspaper. Back in New York in 1942, he graduated from the Dwight School, an Upper West Side private school where an award is now given annually in his name.
Biographical
information
courtesy of Wikipedia
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Created by Jaime
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