In Cold Blood

Truman Capote's masterpiece, IN COLD BLOOD, a sterling early example of the New Journalism, was part of an evolving genre that filtered events both big and small through the writer's own experiences and feelings. IN COLD BLOOD is the intensely researched story of the Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas, and the two men who brutally murdered them on a November night in 1959 for 40 dollars and a radio. Capote spent six years working on the book; his research included not only long stays in Kansas but a sympathetic relationship with Perry Smith, one of the killers. The result, which Capote termed a "nonfiction novel," combined what he knew with what he imagined to present a chilling and vividly documented tale. IN COLD BLOOD was one of the first popular books to look deeply into the mind of a killer, finding both evil and humanity, and has been an important influence on the "true crime" genre that became popular in the years after its publication.