Patricia Highsmith

Patricia Highsmith (January 19, 1921 - February 4, 1995) was an American novelist who is known mainly for her psychological crime thrillers. She acquired world renown for Strangers on a Train, which has been adapted to the screen a number of times, most famously by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951, and for her Ripliad series of books on the character of Thomas Ripley.

Early life

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Highsmith spent most of her life living in France and Switzerland, and was long widely appreciated in Europe while suffering relative obscurity in the United States. She had an unhappy childhood; not only did her mother drink turpentine while pregnant in order to abort her, but she also repeatedly told her so while she was growing up. Highsmith's parents divorced a few days before she was born, and she grew up hating her stepfather. She also had a difficult, love-hate relationship with her mother, which haunted her for the rest of her life.

Related Topics:
Fort Worth, Texas - France - Switzerland - Europe - United States - Turpentine - Pregnant - Abort - Divorce

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She was a lifelong diarist, and developed her writing style as a child writing entries in which she fantasized that her neighbours had psychological problems and murderous personalities behind their facades of normality, a theme she would explore extensively in her novels.

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Diarist - Fantasized - Psychological

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A bisexual, Highsmith included homosexual overtones in many of her novels. The best example is The Price of Salt—rejected by her publishers, and especially controversial for its happy ending, theretofore unheard of in fiction concerning homosexuality—which concerned an obsessive lesbian relationship. It was eventually published under the pseudonym Claire Morgan in 1953 and sold almost a million copies. The inspiration of the book's main character, Carol, was a woman who Highsmith saw in Bloomingdales where she worked at the time. She found out her address from her credit card details and a few months later began to stalk her.

Related Topics:
Bisexual - Homosexual - Fiction - Lesbian - Pseudonym - 1953 - Bloomingdales - Credit card - Stalk

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