ApsûVoyage of a Thousand Books
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Who is this book for?
- People who like true crime stories and want to read the foundational classic of the genre
- Students and writers interested in journalistic and nonfiction writing
- Readers who care about issues such as the death penalty, justice, and criminal psychology
- People who want a work of reportage that reads as compellingly as a novel
Who is the author?
- Truman Capote (1924-1984), American author known for short stories, novels, and essays; his major works include Breakfast at Tiffany's
- He traveled to Kansas for the reporting with his childhood friend Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird
- The book was serialized in The New Yorker in 1965 and published as a book in 1966, and is regarded as the work that pioneered the "nonfiction novel"
More by this authorBreakfast at Tiffany's；Other Voices, Other Rooms
Book notes
One Night in a Quiet Town
November 14, 1959, was the last day of the Clutter family in the town of Holcomb, Kansas. The father, Herb, a successful and respected farm owner, spent an ordinary day with his wife Bonnie and their teenage daughter Nancy and son Kenyon. The family symbolized the stability and respectability of a small farming community.
Meanwhile, two recently released men, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, drove toward Holcomb. They believed the Clutter house held a safe full of cash. In fact, Herb conducted almost all of his business by check and had no safe at all. The next morning, Nancy's friend discovered that all four members of the family had been killed.
A Town Loses Its Sense of Safety
Capote and Harper Lee's Reporting
Flight and Capture
The Two Confessions
The Trial
Five Years on Death Row
The Ending
The Birth of the Nonfiction Novel
The Controversy over Accuracy
Bottles that drifted to this book
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Shang
Shang's reading list
Voyager's Guide
The world
The Sea of Books has 24 real islands, one for each subject. Every building on an island is a book.
What you can do now
- Tap an island on the chart to go ashore
- Tap a building to read the notes on that book
- Meet Shang, the Navigator
Coming soon
- Chapter 2: register as a voyager, sail your ship, collect building badges, send bottles
- Chapter 4: private chats with other voyagers
Symbols
Ship's Registry
Before you set sail, let's get your ship registered.