SOURCE: “Short Fiction: The Ten Dollar Dream,” in Truman Capote, Twayne Publishers, 1981, pp. 34–70.

In the following essay, Reed categorizes Capote's short fiction in terms of the settings of the stories.

Capote remarked once to an interviewer that his “more unswerving ambitions still revolve around” the complex art of the short story. “When seriously explored,” he continued, “the short story seems to me the most difficult and disciplining form of prose writing extant. Whatever control and technique I have,” he said, “I owe entirely to my training in this medium.”¹ The expression “my training” should be borne in mind especially, for in a general way, Capote began as a writer of short fiction before turning his attention to the novel-romance. Finally, except for a foray or two into the theater, he developed the craft of reportage which became the artistic mainstay of his more recent years. Still, the great...