杜鲁门·卡波特

杜鲁门·加西亚·卡波特（英语：Truman Garcia Capote，发音为/ˈtruːmən kəˈpoʊti/；1924年9月30日—1984年8月25日），出生名杜鲁门·史特雷克弗斯·珀森斯（Truman Streckfus Persons），是一位美国作家，著有多部经典文学作品，包括中篇小说《蒂凡尼的早餐》与《冷血》 。在《冷血》一书中，卡波特开创了“真实罪行”类纪实文学，被公认是大众文化的里程碑。

而他为写作《冷血》而调查故事真相的曲折离奇过程，也被好莱坞拍摄成传记电影《卡波特》和《声名狼藉》。

Truman Garcia Capote ( kə-POH-tee; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, and playwright. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, and he is regarded as one of the founders of New Journalism, along with Gay Talese, Hunter S. Thompson, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, and Tom Wolfe. His work and his life story have been adapted into and have been the subject of more than 20 films and television productions.

Capote had a troubled childhood caused by his parents' divorce, a long absence from his mother, and multiple moves. He was planning to become a writer by the time he was eight years old, and he honed his writing ability throughout his childhood. He began his professional career writing short stories. The critical success of "Miriam" (1945) attracted the attention of Random House publisher Bennett Cerf and resulted in a contract to write the novel Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948). He achieved widespread acclaim with Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958)—a novella about a fictional New York café society girl named Holly Golightly, and the true crime novel In Cold Blood (1966)—a journalistic work about the murder of a Kansas farm family in their home. Capote spent six years writing the latter, aided by his lifelong friend Harper Lee, who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird (1960).

Early life

Truman Capote was born at Touro Infirmary in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Lillie Mae Faulk (1905–1954) and salesman Archulus Persons (1897–1981). He was sent to Monroeville, Alabama, where, for the following four to five years, he was raised by his mother's relatives. He formed a fast bond with his mother's distant relative, Nanny Rumbley Faulk, whom Truman called "Sook". "Her face is remarkable – not unlike Lincoln's, craggy like that, and tinted by sun and wind", is how Capote described Sook in "A Christmas Memory" (1956). In Monroeville, Capote was a neighbor and friend of Harper Lee, who would also go on to become an acclaimed author and a lifelong friend of Capote's. Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird likely models Dill's characterization upon Capote.

As a lonely child, Capote taught himself to read and write before he entered his first year of school. Capote was often seen at age five carrying his dictionary and notepad, and began writing fiction at age 11. He was given the nickname "Bulldog" around this age.

On Saturdays, he made trips from Monroeville to the nearby city of Mobile on the Gulf Coast, and at one point submitted a short story, "Old Mrs. Busybody", to a children's writing contest sponsored by the Mobile Press Register. Capote received recognition for his early work from The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards in 1936.

In 1932, he moved to New York City to live with his mother and her second husband, José García Capote. José was a former Spanish colonel who became a landlord at Union de Reyes, Cuba.

Of his early days, Capote related, "I was writing really sort of serious 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 1932, he attended the Trinity School in New York City. He then attended St. Joseph Military Academy. In 1939, the Capote family 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. When they returned to New York City in 1941, he attended the Franklin School, an Upper West Side private school now known as the Dwight School, and graduated in 1942. That was the end of his formal education.