Hi, I'm Shannon, the podcast producer here at C-SPAN, and this week on the Lectures and History podcast to discussion on Truman Capote's 1966 novel in Cold Blood.

Mr. Capote spent six years working on the novel, some of which included help from To Kill a Mockingbird author, Harper Lee.

Ms. Lee assisted Mr. Capote with interviewing the Kansas locals,

who didn't instantly open up to Mr. Capote.

Georgetown University English professor Christopher Shin discusses the novel's history and cultural reception.

He also examines the impact of the novel on the genres of pulp fiction and true crime.

More on Truman Capote's In Cold Blood right after this.

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Today we will be talking about Truman Capote's work in Cold Blood,

a work of true crime, and also a very significant work in the history of American literature.

So this book in Cold Blood is very important.

It was widely regarded to be a tour to force when it was written in

1966.

It was originally serialized in 1965 in the New Yorker magazine. and then it produced broad public interest and debate,

both for its sensational topic

and for its new methods of journalistic reporting and investigation.

There are many sort of concerns that critics have had towards this work because

Truman Capote considered this work what he called nonfiction, the nonfiction novel.

...