Controversial and compelling, "In Cold Blood" reconstructs the murder in 1959 of a Kansas farmer, his wife and children. Truman Capote's comprehensive study of the killings and subsequent investigation explores the circumstances surrounding this terrible crime and the effect it had on those involved. At the centre of his study are the amoral young killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickcock, who, vividly drawn by Capote, are shown to be reprehensible, yet entirely and frighteningly human. The book that made Capote's name, "In Cold Blood" is a seminal work of modern prose, a remarkable synthesis of journalistic skill and powerfully evocative narrative.
Author Biography
Truman Capote was born in New Orleans in 1925 and was raised in various parts of the South, his family spending winters in New Orleans and summers in Alabama and New Georgia. He left school when he was fifteen and subsequently worked for the New Yorker which provided his first - and last - regular job. In 1948 his first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, was published to international critical acclaim, assuring Capote a place among the prominent postwar American writers. He died in August 1984.
