“Truman Capote, as obsessed with fame and fortune as with writing great words, was a writer who became also known for his appearances on talk shows in late evening than for his prose” (Patterson 1). Capote was a literary pop star at the height of his fame in 1966, having written classic books such as Other Rooms, Other Voices, Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood. Postmodernism was a literary period that began after World War II and was a rejection of traditional writing techniques. He used fragmented sentences and questionable narrators, along with many other unconventional techniques, to break ancient barriers of literature. Truman Capote was a major player in the postmodern game, using his own shattered childhood to sympathize with a convicted murderer and invent an entirely new genre of nonfiction literature known as the true crime genre. The first and perhaps most important fact about Truman Capote is that he did not have a happy, or even a decent, childhood. His parents separated when he was very young and he began traveling south with his mother. During this time, Capote's mother would lock him in hotel rooms for days on end and give waiters specific instructions to ignore his screams. Capote attributes his free-floating anxiety to his mother locking him in hotel rooms. As an adult, Capote said of his mother, "She locked me away and I still can't get out." His troubled childhood is one of the forces that helped shape his personality, and ultimately his voice on the page. Capote's childhood is also one of the things that linked him so closely to Perry Smith, the murder in his "non-fiction novel" In Cold Blood (Kim 4). During Capote's long interviews......middle of paper......His consequences. New York: Random House, 1966. Print. Kim, Lydia. "Critical essay on 'In Cold Blood'." Nonfiction Classics for Students: Presenting analysis, context, and criticism of nonfiction works. Ed. David M. Galens, Jennifer Smith and Elizabeth Thomason. Flight. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2001. Information Resource Center. Internet. May 15, 2014. "Motif - Definition and Examples | Literary Devices." Literary devices. Np, and Web. May 15, 2014. Patterson, Eric. “Truman Capote: Overview.” Contemporary popular writers. Ed. Dave Mote. Detroit: St. James Press, 1997. Literary Resource Center. Internet. May 16, 2014. "Point of View - Definition and Examples | Literary Devices." Literary devices. Np, and Web. May 16, 2014. “Truman Capote.” Gay and lesbian biography. Ed. Michael J. Tyrkus and Michael Bronski. Detroit: St. James Press, 1997. Literary Resource Center. Internet. May 15 2014.