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Article: A murder in middle America: Truman Capote's killer instincts and the making of the sensational In Cold Blood. (Backstory).
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- Book
- Article date:
- November 1, 2002
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 West Egg Communications LLC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IN JANUARY 1966 AN ELECTRONIC BILLBOARD IN TIMES SQUARE FLASHED out three stark words: "In Cold Blood," the title of Truman Capote's account of a gruesome multiple murder in rural Kansas. The year before, The New Yorker had published the story in weekly installments, and "you could hardly wait until the next week," remembers George Plimpton, a friend of the author. "It was like Dickens' day, when people would go down to the boat to wait for the next chapter. That was the way it was with The New Yorker. People went down to the bookstore to see it unwrapped."
Much of In Cold Blood's success can be chalked up to its gory subject matter--it had the visceral appeal of ...