Truman Capote’s Teenage Works Published

He claimed to have taught himself to read and write before his first year at school, to have started serious fiction writing aged 11, and to have known for certain that he would become a professional writer when he was only 15.

Thirty years after Truman Capote’s death, the rest of the world can now make up its own mind about his work as a precocious boyhood genius.

truman capote 1981

On ThursdayToday, previously unknown stories by the author of In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany’s are being published for the first time after being rediscovered by his German publisher earlier this summer.

Four of the stories, written when Capote was aged between 14 and 17, appear in today’s edition of the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit, while Random House will publish a collection with a further 17 short stories in 2015.

Some of the stories had originally appeared in school magazines, others have never before been published.

via The Guardian