Truman Capote and the Legacy of In Cold Blood

Resumen del libro

"Truman Capote and the Legacy of ""'In Cold Blood"' is the anatomy of the origins of an American literary landmark and its legacy.


Choice (03/01/2012):
Voss (emer., composition theory, Univ. of Alabama) plots eight legacies of In Cold Blood. He reiterates what most know but with welcome additions. In emphasizing legacies, he spotlights Capote's great achievement in producing the novel, despite the gossip surrounding its creation. The most damning of the legacies was celebrity, i.e., Capote's need for it. The issue of the similarities of the childhoods of condemned killer Perry Smith and Capote once again appears, as it did in William Schultz's Tiny Terror (CH, Nov'11, 49-1336). The gay subtext/legacy was muted at the time of the novel's publication, overridden by the notion of the "nonfiction novel." Voss terms the nonfiction/fiction concept a myth, refers to other novels based in true fact, and looks at embellishments that rendered In Cold Blood fiction. Another legacy had to do with capital punishment, something Capote had not thought much about before he covered the murders. And his third-person narration has influenced the "true crime" genre. The last legacy Voss cites has to do with the state of Kansas, which was as much affected by the book as by the tragedy. Well documented with endnotes, black-and-white photographs, and a thorough bibliography. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. -- A. Hirsh, emeritus, Central Connecticut State University (Reprinted with permission of Choice, copyright 2012, American Library Association)

Review Quotes:

""Truman Capote and the Legacy of "In Cold Blood is a riveting, finely written psychological/literary analysis, combined with meticulous historical research, by a Kansas native. Ralph Voss's subject is the context, creation, and impact of Capote's book. Voss's approach is an honest investigation into the very processes of investigation--by law enforcement in Kansas and by Capote the writer--as well as the creative processes of those influenced by "In Cold Blood" to contribute to American popular culture." --Claudia Durst Johnson, author "Understanding To Kill A Mockingbird: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historic Documents"

Review Quotes:
"The book is especially well written. Perhaps no other work of modern literary journalism has received as much critical attention as "In Cold Blood", so I found it interesting that this book provided an entertaining view of the subject and a thorough review of the materials."--Norman Sims, author of "True Stories: A Century of Literary Journalism "and "Literary Journalism in the Twentieth Century"

Review Quotes:

"As we have just passed the forty-fifth anniversary of the publication of In Cold Blood, readers continue to be fascinated by Truman Capote and his self-avowed masterpiece. Now Ralph Voss has written the first full-length critical treatment of the book, focusing on the methods Capote employed in writing it, on the continuing questions about its genre and themes, and on the tremendous effect the book has had in Kansas and beyond. Combining the skills of an accomplished cultural and literary critic with an intimate knowledge of the Kansas setting of the book, Voss shows us how this book paradoxically represents both the pinnacle of Capote's literary career and the beginning of a tragic period of artistic and personal failure. Voss's excellent study will undoubtedly take its place alongside other essential books on Capote."--Norman McMillan, author of "Against a Copper Sky," a play about Truman Capote

Biographical Note:

Ralph F. Voss is the author of "The Strains of Triumph: A Life of William Inge" (University Press of Kansas, 1989) and "Elements of Practical Writing "(Holt, 1985), editor of "Magical Muse: Millennial Essays on Tennessee Williams" (University of Alabama Press, 2002), and coeditor of "Against the Grain: A Volume in""Honor of Maxine Hairston" (Hampton Press, 2002). He is coauthor, with Michael Keene, of both editions of "The Heath Guide to College Writing" (D.C. Heath, 1992, 1995).

Publisher Marketing:
"Truman Capote and the Legacy of"""In Cold Blood is the anatomy of the origins of an American literary landmark and its legacy. Ralph F. Vosswas a high school junior in Plainville, Kansas in mid-November of 1959 when four members of the Herbert Clutter family were murdered in Holcomb, Kansas, by "four shotgun blasts that, all told, ended six human lives," an unimaginable horror in a quiet farm community during the Eisenhower years. No one in Kansas or elsewhere could then have foreseen the emergence of Capote's book-which has never gone out of print, has twice been made into a major motion picture, remains""required reading in criminology, American Studies, sociology, and English classes, and has been the source of two recent biographical films.
Voss examines Capote and "In Cold Blood" from many perspectives, not only as the crowning achievement of Capote's career, but also as a story in itself, focusing on Capote's artfully composed text, his extravagant claims for it as reportage, and its larger status in American popular culture.
Voss argues that Capote's publication of "In Cold Blood" in 1966 forever transcended his reputation as a first-rate stylist but second-rate writer of "Southern gothic" fiction; that "In Cold Blood" actually is a gothic novel, a sophisticated culmination of Capote's artistic development and interest in lurid regionalism, but one that nonetheless eclipsed him both personally and artistically. He also explores Capote's famous claim that he created a genre called the "non-fiction novel," and its status as a foundational work of "true crime" writing as practiced by authors ranging from Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer to James Ellroy, Joe McGinniss, and John Berendt.
Voss also examines Capote's artful manipulation of the story's facts and circumstances: his masking of crucial homoerotic elements to enhance its marketability; his need for the killers to remain alive long enough to get the story, and then his need for them to die so that he could complete it; and Capote's style, his shaping of the narrative, and his selection of details-why it served him to include "this" and not "that," and the effects of such choices--all despite confident declarations that "every word is true."
Though it's been nearly 50 years since the Clutter murders and far more gruesome crimes have been documented, "In Cold Blood "continues to resonate deeply in popular culture. Beyond questions of artistic selection and claims of truth, beyond questions about capital punishment and Capote's own post-publication dissolution, "In Cold Blood"'s ongoing relevance stems, argues Voss, from its unmatched role as a touchstone for enduring issues of truth, exploitation, victimization, and the power of narrative.