Journalism as Literature: "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote

Truman Capote, soon after finishing In Cold Blood

One of the most interesting things about the creation of In Cold Blood is how quick off the mark Truman Capote was in his pursuit of this “true crime” story, He noticed a small piece in The New York Times on November 16th, 1959, reporting the murders of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas - nowheresville, to the chic society Manhattanite that Capote had by that time become - and just four days later, with the support of the editor of The New Yorker William Shawn, he arrived in Holcomb, two days after the funerals of the murdered Clutters. It took hold of him in a way he could not have foreseen. The book was not published until six years later, and after that he never finished another novel. “I think, in a way, it did kill me,” he said.