THE RELEVANT QUEER: Patricia Highsmith, Writer Champion of Serial Killer Antiheroes, Lover of Cats, Owner of Snails, Born January 19, 1921

“My imagination functions much better when I don’t have to speak to people.”

TRQ: Patricia Highsmith, Born Jan. 19, 1921

Novelist and short story writer Patricia Highsmith was born on January 19, 1921 in Fort Worth, Texas. Known for her psychological thrillers, Highsmith published over 20 novels and many collections of short stories, essays and articles. Much of her work has been adapted into film, radio, television and radio, including Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (1951), Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), and Phyllis Nagy’s Carol (2015), starring Cate Blanchett & Rooney Mara.

Highsmith’s parents, Jay Bernard and Mary Plangman, divorced only days before her birth. Mary remarried in 1924, and Highsmith’s family moved to New York City in 1927. By the age of two, she learned to read from her grandmother. Their mother-daughter relationship was complicated, and Highsmith never hid her dislike for her mother. Mary once claimed that she had attempted to abort her daughter by drinking turpentine. Later, 12-year-old Highsmith went back to Fort Worth to live with her grandmother for a year that she describes as “the saddest” of her life. She described her childhood as a “little hell.”

After graduating from Julia Richman High School, Highsmith attended Barnard College to study composition, playwriting and short story prose writing. “The Cries of Love” about two old women who live together and hate each other was the first story she sold. In 1946, Harper’s Bazaar published “The Heroine,” which won the 1946 O. Henry Award. After graduating from Barnard, she tried unsuccessfully to get work at Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Time and The New Yorker.

Highsmith worked as a comic book writer before starting her first novel, Strangers on a Train (1950), at the Yaddo artist retreat, after she was accepted on recommendation by Truman Capote. The novel was a success. Once Hitchcock adapted it for a film production starring Robert Walker and Farley Granger, Highsmith could write full time in Europe.

She published her second novel, The Price of Salt (1952) under the name Claire Morgan. It was groundbreaking for being a lesbian novel with a happy ending. Highsmith drew from her relationship with socialite Virginia Kent Catherwood and work experiences from her time at Bloomingdale’s. In 1990, 38 years later, Bloomsbury re-titled the book Carol and Highsmith finally claimed authorship for the book that had already sold almost a million copies.

“The appeal of The Price of Salt was that it had a happy ending for its two main characters, or at least they were going to try to have a future together. Prior to this book, homosexuals male and female in American novels had had to pay for their deviation by cutting their wrists, drowning themselves in a swimming pool, or by switching to heterosexuality (so it was stated), or by collapsing – alone and miserable and shunned – into a depression equal to hell.”
— Patricia Highsmith

Dark preoccupations with death, murder and charming psychopathic antiheroes run through Highsmith’s work. One of her most infamous characters is Tom Ripley, who appears in five books known as the “Ripliad.” The schizophrenic murderous Ripley who kills for money first appears in The Talented Mr Ripley (1956). Highsmith described the feeling that Ripley wrote the book through her. She won the Edgar Allan Poe scroll from the Mystery Writers of America in 1957.

“Solving a murder case leaves me completely indifferent. Is there anything more artificial and boring than justice? It is not my aim to morally rearm the reader, I want to entertain.”
— Patricia Highsmith

Highsmith’s sexual relationships mainly involved women. She has been described as a misogynistic lesbian. However, she spent most of her time with her cats and hundreds of pet snails. She suffered from depression, anorexia, and anaemia. She was an alcoholic for most of her life, but as she got older, she became anti-Semitic and antisocial. She was also a heavy smoker. On February 4, 1995, Highsmith died of anaemia and lung cancer in Locarno, Switzerland. She left her entire estate to the Yaddo artist retreat.

About the Authors:

Troy Wise is currently a PhD student at UAL Central St Martins and teaches fashion and graphic design at London College of Contemporary Arts. His background is in marketing and he is founder and co-editor of Image Amplified. He lives in, and is continually fascinated by, the city of London.

Rick Guzman earned his most recent MA at UAL Central St Martins in Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries. He currently holds two MA’s and an MBA in the New Media, Journalism and International Business fields. Co-editor at Image Amplified since its start, he lives in London, is fascinated by history and is motivated by continuing to learn and explore.

*

Sources:

The Guardian

Independent

Archive

Queer Portraits