Truman claimed that the camera had caught him off guard, but in fact he had posed himself and was responsible for both the picture and the publicity.' Much of the early attention to Capote centered on different interpretations of this photograph, which was viewed as a suggestive pose by some. Gerald Clarke, in Capote: A Biography (1988), wrote, 'The famous photograph: Harold Halma's picture on the dustjacket of Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948) caused as much comment and controversy as the prose inside. A 1947 Harold Halma photograph used to promote the book showed a reclining Capote gazing fiercely into the camera. The promotion and controversy surrounding this novel catapulted Capote to fame.

Other Voices, Other Rooms made The New York Times bestseller list and stayed there for nine weeks, selling more than 26,000 copies. In addition to 'Miriam', this collection also includes 'Shut a Final Door', first published in The Atlantic Monthly (August 1947). Random House, the publisher of his novel Other Voices, Other Rooms (see below), moved to capitalize on this novel's success with the publication of A Tree of Night and Other Stories in 1949. That was the end of his formal education. When they returned to New York City in 1941, he attended the Franklin School, an Upper West Side private school now known as the Dwight School, and graduated in 1942. In 1939, the Capote family moved to Greenwich, Connecticut, and Truman attended Greenwich High School, where he wrote for both the school's literary journal, The Green Witch, and the school newspaper. I was obsessed by it.' In 1932, he attended the Trinity School in New York City. I say seriously in the sense that like other kids go home and practice the violin or the piano or whatever, I used to go home from school every day, and I would write for about three hours.

Of his early days, Capote related, 'I was writing really sort of serious when I was about eleven. However, JosГ© was convicted of embezzlement and shortly afterwards, when his income crashed, the family was forced to leave Park Avenue. In 1932, he moved to New York City to live with his mother and her second husband, JosГ© GarcГa Capote, a bookkeeper from Union de Reyes, Cuba, who adopted him as his son and renamed him Truman GarcГa Capote.

Truman capote harold halma photo