--- description: The two writers had been friends since childhood title: The Legendary Friendship of Harper Lee and Truman Capote image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfb3cd2f362acae1a/69887e58524fc06e3bdf6d59/harper-lee-truman-capote.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Books](/tag/books/) ## Books Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The Legendary Friendship of Harper Lee and Truman Capote ## Video: In Memoriam: Harper Lee [Watch (HLS stream): In Memoriam: Harper Lee](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6Em10taA.m3u8) (0:33)  _Published 2016-02-19. Harper Lee, famed author of 'To Kill A Mocking Bird', dead._ by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 19, 2016 7:15 PM CUT  Truman Capote in his Upper East Side apartment in New York City in 1980 (L); Harper Lee in Monroeville, Alabama in May 1961. Truman Capote in his Upper East Side apartment in New York City in 1980 (L); Harper Lee in Monroeville, Alabama in May 1961.George Rose—Getty Images (L);Donald Uhrbrock—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 19, 2016 7:15 PM CUT Long before Harper Lee and Truman Capote gained literary fame for [_To Kill a Mockingbird_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0446310786/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") and [_In Cold Blood_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0679745580/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined"), their respective midcentury masterpieces, they were childhood friends, palling around Monroeville, Ala. just like Scout and Dill do in Lee’s fictional Maycomb. The duo remained friends into adulthood, and their literary relationship is the stuff of legend. Capote [based](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/10/books/harper-lee-and-truman-capote-a-collaboration-in-mischief.html "undefined") a tomboy character in his first novel, [_Other Voices, Other Rooms_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0679745645/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined"), on Lee. When _Mockingbird_ was so well received, some derisively speculated Capote (who already had a strong literary reputation) must have helped—or even ghostwritten it, a [rumor that persisted](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5244492 "undefined") for decades. Lee certainly helped Capote: she was his research assistant for _In Cold Blood_, contributing 150 pages of notes, and was reportedly hurt to be included only in the “Acknowledgments” section of the book; they grew apart after its publication in 1965. Capote died in 1984 at age 59, and [Lee died on Thursday at 89](http://time.com/4230580/harper-lee-to-kill-mockingbird-dies-89/ "undefined"), but they live on in the popular imagination. Their friendship was depicted by Catherine Keener and Philip Seymour Hoffman in _Capote_ and by Sandra Bullock and Toby Jones in _Infamous_, and is the subject of the forthcoming children’s book [_Tru and Nelle_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0544699602/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined"). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4230925/harper-lee-truman-capote-friendship/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4230925/harper-lee-truman-capote-friendship/"},"headline":"The Legendary Friendship of Harper Lee and Truman Capote","datePublished":"2016-02-19T19:15:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:13:52.915Z","description":"The two writers had been friends since childhood","url":"https://time.com/4230925/harper-lee-truman-capote-friendship/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfb3cd2f362acae1a/69887e58524fc06e3bdf6d59/harper-lee-truman-capote.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfb3cd2f362acae1a/69887e58524fc06e3bdf6d59/harper-lee-truman-capote.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"harper-lee-truman-capote","caption":"Truman Capote in his Upper East Side apartment in New York City in 1980 (L); Harper Lee in Monroeville, Alabama in May 1961.","creditText":"George Rose—Getty Images (L);Donald Uhrbrock—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4230925/harper-lee-truman-capote-friendship/","name":"The Legendary Friendship of Harper Lee and Truman Capote"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"In Memoriam: Harper Lee","description":"Harper Lee, famed author of 'To Kill A Mocking Bird', dead.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/6Em10taA/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-02-19T17:20:18.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6Em10taA.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4230925/harper-lee-truman-capote-friendship/","duration":"PT33S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4230925/harper-lee-truman-capote-friendship/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```