Like many Southern writers of the 1930s and 1940s, who as a group created the richest, most memorable body of regional literature in the history of American letters, Truman Capote eventually journeyed northward. As the years passed, Capote’s moorings to his Southern past grew weaker and weaker, and he deliberately cut himself off from the people and places that provided fodder for much of his early fiction.

The Southern Haunting of Truman Capote is a thoughtful reflection on the literary origins of four of Capote’s important early works—A Christmas Memory, The Grass Harp, “Children on Their Birthdays,” and Other Voices, Other Rooms—in light of the boyhood experiences that inspired them.

Marie Rudisill, a younger sister of Capote’s mother, was the only one of her nephew’s companions to have known him well his entire life. Because of this close relationship, she gained a unique perspective on her nephew’s development as one of America’s leading novelists. Written at the encouragement of Capote’s longtime editor, Joe Fox, The Southern Haunting of Truman provides a useful point of view for understanding Capote’s work.