Truman Capote's Real Name: Truman Streckfus Persons

Quick answer: The writer is known professionally as Truman Capote. Britannica and Biography.com independently give the original name Truman Streckfus Persons, date his birth to September 30, 1924, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and date his death to August 25, 1984. Biography.com places the death at a home in Los Angeles; Britannica independently names Los Angeles, California.

Real name and early life

Independent publishers support the documented original name Truman Streckfus Persons. Britannica gives that original name, dates the birth to September 30, 1924, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and says he was born Truman Persons, that his parents, Lillie Mae ("Nina") Faulk and Archulus Persons, divorced when he was two, and that he spent part of his childhood with relatives in Monroeville, Alabama, where he became close friends with Harper Lee. Biography.com independently says Truman Garcia Capote was born Truman Streckfus Persons on September 30, 1924, in New Orleans, and that he spent much of his young life in the care of his mother's relatives in Monroeville, Alabama. The professional surname Capote is the name under which both accounts discuss his published work.

Career highlights

Britannica says his best-known works remain Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958; film 1961) and In Cold Blood (1965; film 1967), and that the latter, a nonfiction novel about the 1959 murders of four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, first appeared as a series of articles in The New Yorker in 1965, with a book version published that same year. A later Britannica discussion of the book dates the book-form publication to 1966. Biography.com independently dates Breakfast at Tiffany's to 1958 and says In Cold Blood was first serialized in The New Yorker across four issues in 1965 and published as a book in 1966, becoming an immediate best-seller. Britannica also names earlier books including Other Voices, Other Rooms and The Grass Harp (1951), and later work including the unfinished novel Answered Prayers. Biography.com independently describes the later years as marked by celebrity and by struggles with substance abuse, and says he was 59 at his death, one month before his 60th birthday.

Death

Biography.com says he died at the Los Angeles home of his friend Joanne Carson on August 25, 1984, at age 59. Britannica independently dates the death to August 25, 1984, in Los Angeles, California.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Truman Capote or Truman Streckfus Persons are looking for the same writer. Britannica and Biography.com support the original name used in the title.