Truman Capote

Abandoned by his mother at birth, Capote was raised in Alabama by his aunts and cousins.  He returned to live with his remarried mother in New York in his teens.  At the age of 17, he dropped out of school to take a job with The New Yorker magazine.         

Capote was known for his flamboyancy on paper and in life. Aside from developing a new genre: the non-fiction novel, many claim he developed his writing style at the isolated age of 11 deeming it his "Southern Gothic style."