It Was 50 Years Ago Today: ‘In Cold Blood’ by Truman Capote
April 19, 1966
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
#1 on the New York Times Best Seller List (Non-Fiction), February 6 – May 7, 1966
On November 16, 1959, the New York Times published a brief article headlined “Wealthy Farmer, 3 of Family Slain.” The story recounted the brutal, apparently senseless, murders of Kansas-based wheat farmer Herbert Clutter, his wife Bonnie, and their two teenage children Nancy and Kenyon in their home in rural Holcomb. Although the article was only 300 words long, it sparked inspiration for writer Truman Capote, who spent six years following the murder investigation. The result was In Cold Blood, a book that not only became his most celebrated work, but also popularized a new genre: a blend of true facts and literary techniques that Capote termed the “non-fiction novel.”
Shortly after the murders, Capote, on assignment from The New Yorker, decamped to Holcomb to research the town that had been shocked by an unprecedented crime. The effeminate, flamboyantly dressed Capote, best known for his risqué novels Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948) and Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958), cut an eccentric figure in the rural Midwest town. Fortunately, his childhood friend Harper Lee, whose recently completed To Kill a Mockingbird was awaiting publication, was on hand to act both as research assistant and a “translator” of sorts. Her low-key friendliness and Southern roots cleared a path for Capote to connect with the residents of Holcomb and the investigators covering the Clutters’ murder. With Lee’s help, Capote spent nearly four years on and off in western Kansas, compiling nearly 8,000 pages of notes.
Over the course of Capote’s extended visits to Holcomb, he developed a degree of access and scope completely foreign to most crime journalists. He followed the investigation from the apprehension of the perpetrators, ex-cons Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, in late December 1959, until their execution by hanging on April 14, 1965. But it wasn’t just the depth and breadth of Capote’s coverage that made In Cold Blood a popular sensation, both in its initial serialization in The New Yorker in late 1965 and as a best-selling book in early 1966. Rather, Capote applied his talent to make what could have been a straightforward news item read like literature, from its haunting depiction of the murders, to the gripping portrait of the investigation, to its sympathetic portrayal of the killers, particularly the sensitive Smith.
Nevertheless, there were accusations that the novelistic aspects of In Cold Blood weren’t only limited to its style. While Capote claimed that “every word” of the novel was true, interviewees later claimed they were misquoted, and some aspects of the story were found to be invented. Critic Stanley Kauffmann, writing for the New Republic, lambasted the book for being a shallow stylistic exercise, neither satisfactory as fiction or reportage: “Iits height is rarely higher than that of good journalism and often falls below it.”
Most of In Cold Blood’s critical reception was far more enthusiastic, however, and despite its questionable veracity, the novel topped the New York Times’ Non-Fiction Bestsellers list for three straight months. It introduced the modern form of the true-crime novel and influenced the New Journalism style of the ’60s and ’70s, in which writers such as Tom Wolfe, Norman Mailer, and Hunter S. Thompson wrote ostensible non-fiction with a literary flair. But for Capote himself, In Cold Blood was more of an ending than a beginning. Between its release in 1966 and his death in 1984, he never again published another novel or full-length work of non-fiction. “No one will ever know what In Cold Blood took out of me,” Capote later said. “It nearly killed me. I think, in a way, it did kill me.”
Cover photo: Perry Smith and Truman Capote, photographed by Richard Avedon c. 1965
It Was 50 Years Ago Today examines a song, album, movie, or book that was #1 on the charts exactly half a century ago.
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Dana DeLoach