Editing Truman Capote (section)

=== Short story phase ===

Capote began writing short stories around the age of eight.<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 9, 2014 |title=Truman Capote's previously unknown boyhood tales published |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/09/truman-capote-boyhood-tales-published |access-date=September 30, 2022 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref> In 2013, the Swiss publisher Peter Haag discovered fourteen unpublished stories, written when Capote was a teenager, in the [[New York Public Library]] Archives. Random House published these in 2015, under the title ''The Early Stories of Truman Capote''.<ref>{{cite news|author=Johnson, A.|year=2015|title='' Early stories of Truman Capote'', book review|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/early-stories-of-truman-capote-by-truman-capote-book-review-a6704706.html|access-date=October 15, 2016|work=The Independent|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220072124/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/early-stories-of-truman-capote-by-truman-capote-book-review-a6704706.html|archive-date=December 20, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

Between 1943 and 1946, Capote wrote a continual flow of short fiction, including "Miriam", "My Side of the Matter", and "Shut a Final Door" (for which he won the [[O. Henry Award]] in 1948, at the age of 24). His stories were published in both literary quarterlies and well-known popular magazines, including ''[[The Atlantic Monthly]]'', ''[[Harper's Bazaar]]'', ''[[Harper's Magazine]]'', ''[[Mademoiselle (magazine)|Mademoiselle]]'', ''[[The New Yorker]]'', ''[[Prairie Schooner]]'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://prairieschooner.unl.edu/ |title=UNL &#124; |website=Prairie Schooner |date=July 23, 2009 |access-date=March 8, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716000206/http://prairieschooner.unl.edu/ |archive-date=July 16, 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref> and ''[[Story (magazine)|Story]]''. In June 1945, "Miriam" was published by ''[[Mademoiselle (magazine)|Mademoiselle]]'' and went on to win a prize, Best First-Published Story, in 1946. In the spring of 1946, Capote was accepted at [[Yaddo]], the artists and writers colony at [[Saratoga Springs, New York]]. (He later endorsed [[Patricia Highsmith]] as a Yaddo candidate, and she wrote ''[[Strangers on a Train (novel)|Strangers on a Train]]'' while she was there.)

During an interview for ''[[The Paris Review]]'' in 1957, Capote said this of his short story technique:

{{blockquote|Since each story presents its own technical problems, obviously one can't generalize about them on a two-times-two-equals-four basis. Finding the right form for your story is simply to realize the most ''natural'' way of telling the story. The test of whether or not a writer has divined the natural shape of his story is just this: after reading it, can you imagine it differently, or does it silence your imagination and seem to you absolute and final? As an orange is final. As an orange is something nature has made just right.<ref name="paris">{{cite journal |last = Hill |first = Pati |author-link = Pati Hill |title = Truman Capote, The Art of Fiction No. 17 |journal = [[The Paris Review]] |issue = Spring–Summer 1957 |volume = 16 |url = http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4867/the-art-of-fiction-no-17-truman-capote |issn = 0031-2037 |access-date = September 10, 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101007201124/http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4867/the-art-of-fiction-no-17-truman-capote |archive-date = October 7, 2010 |url-status = live }}</ref>}}

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. In addition to "Miriam", this collection also includes "Shut a Final Door", first published in ''[[The Atlantic Monthly]]'' (August 1947).

After ''A Tree of Night'', Capote published a collection of his travel writings, ''[[Local Color (book)|Local Color]]'' (1950), which included nine essays originally published in magazines between 1946 and 1950.

"[[A Christmas Memory]]", a largely autobiographical story taking place in the 1930s, was published in ''[[Mademoiselle (magazine)|Mademoiselle]]'' magazine in 1956. It was issued as a hard-cover standalone edition in 1966, and has since been published in many editions and anthologies.