Reading Order
CapoteTruman Capote Nonfiction Novel Reading Order
Truman Capote's In Cold Blood (1966) is the founding text of creative nonfiction's most serious ambitions — a reconstruction of the 1959 murders of the Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas, by Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, two drifters who had been tipped about a safe they believed held $10,000, found nothing, and killed four people rather than leave witnesses. Capote spent six years researching the book, moving to Holcomb with Harper Lee immediately after reading the news item, interviewing everyone connected to the case, and developing a personal relationship with Perry Smith on death row that became one of the most complicated and debated authorial relationships in American letters. The book is simultaneously a true-crime reconstruction, a sociological portrait of middle America in 1959, a psychological study of two killers whose backgrounds Capote renders with novelistic sympathy, and a meditation on capital punishment. Capote called it a 'nonfiction novel,' and it created the genre — or defined it so completely that everything since is either an influence or a response.
Where to start
In Cold Blood
Complete Capote Book List
- 1Buy
In Cold Blood
Truman Capote·1966·Start here — the Clutter murders, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, the founding nonfiction novel. - 2Buy
The Executioner's Song
Norman Mailer·1979·The other great American nonfiction novel — Gary Gilmore, capital punishment, Utah in 1976. Won the Pulitzer. - 3Buy
Helter Skelter
Vincent Bugliosi·1974·The Manson Family murders — prosecutorial nonfiction that defined the true crime genre's procedural wing. - 4Buy
Devil in the White City
Erik Larson·2003·H.H. Holmes at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair — the most Capote-influenced popular nonfiction of the 2000s. - 5Buy
Other Voices, Other Rooms
Truman Capote·1948·Capote's debut novel at 23 — the Gothic South, Joel Knox, the work that made him famous before In Cold Blood.
Capote — Frequently Asked Questions
Is In Cold Blood really a novel if it's true?
Capote's claim that In Cold Blood is a 'nonfiction novel' has been debated since publication. Several details have been disputed — most notably, the final scene, in which Capote's investigator meets the Clutters' friend Nancy in the cemetery, which some believe Capote invented. But the book's novelistic techniques (scene-setting, interior perspective, dramatic structure) and the depth of its psychological characterization are what make it defining. Its truth is essentially verifiable; its art is undeniable.
Did Capote's relationship with Perry Smith compromise the book?
Capote formed a deep personal attachment to Perry Smith during the years of research and correspondence on death row, and some critics argue this distorted the book — that Smith's portrayal is more sympathetic than the evidence warrants, and that Capote ultimately betrayed him by attending his execution for material. Others argue the relationship produced the book's extraordinary access and psychological depth. Gerald Clarke's biography of Capote gives the most complete account.
Did Capote ever write another book after In Cold Blood?
No major completed work. Answered Prayers, a roman à clef about his socialite circle, was excerpted in Esquire in 1975-76 and caused a scandal that cost Capote most of his friendships; the novel was never finished and was published posthumously in fragments. Many believe In Cold Blood and the six years it consumed essentially ended Capote's creative life as a fiction writer.
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