The Complete Stories of Truman Capote - Vintage International Paperback

About the Book

On the occasion of what would have been his 80th birthday, the Modern Library presents the first collection that includes all of Truman Capote's short fiction--a volume that confirms his status as one of the masters of this form.

Book Synopsis

A landmark collection that brings together Truman Capote's life's work in the form he called his "great love," The Complete Stories confirms Capote's status as a master of the short story.

"To best experience Capote the stylist, one must go back to his short fiction. . . . One experiences as strongly as ever his gift for concrete abstraction and his spectacular observancy." --The New Yorker

Ranging from the gothic South to the chic East Coast, from rural children to aging urban sophisticates, all the unforgettable places and people of Capote's oeuvre are here, in stories as elegant as they are heartfelt, as haunting as they are compassionate. Reading them reminds us of the miraculous gifts of a beloved American original.

Review Quotes

"An abundance of riches. . . . It is not hard at all to open to any page . . . and be amused, moved, intrigued." --Newsday

"To best experience Capote the stylist, one must go back to his short fiction. . . . One experiences as strongly as ever his gift for concrete abstraction and his spectacular observancy." --The New Yorker

"It is a stunning experience to reread this fiction . . . and to realize how very golden this boy was. . . . We are in the presence of a tremendous talent, and a fully mature technique as well. Norman Mailer's judgment that Capote was the most perfect writer of their generation--'he writes the best sentences word for word, rhythm upon rhythm'--seems true and just." --The New Criterion

"Capote does some things perfectly than many writers can't do at all. . . . He summons the sensory world in its bewildering, inexhaustible richness." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

About the Author

Truman Capote was born September 30, 1924, in New Orleans. After his parents' divorce, he was sent to live with relatives in Monroeville, Alabama. It was here he would meet his lifelong friend, the author Harper Lee. Capote rose to international prominence in 1948 with the publication of his debut novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms. Among his celebrated works are Breakfast at Tiffany's, A Tree of Night, The Grass Harp, Summer Crossing, A Christmas Memory, and In Cold Blood, widely considered one of the greatest books of the twentieth century. Twice awarded the O. Henry Short Story Prize, Capote was also the recipient of a National Institute of Arts and Letters Creative Writing Award and an Edgar Award. He died August 25, 1984, shortly before his sixtieth birthday.

Reynolds Price is the James B. Duke Professor of English at Duke University and the distinguished author of more than twenty-five books of fiction, poetry, drama, and essays. He lives in North Carolina.