Patricia Highsmith-Biography

Strangers on a Train, Ripley Series Author's Life Cloaked in Mystery

Feb 10, 2008 Vickie Britton

Despite all that has been written about her, Patricia Highsmith, aka Mary Patricia Plangman, remains an enigma.

Personal Life

Patricia Highsmith was born Mary Patricia Plangman on January 19, 1921 in Fort Worth, Texas. She received her education at Barnard College, where she studied English, Latin and Greek. More recognized in Europe than in her own country, from 1963 until her death, Highsmith lived in Europe. During her later years she lead a reclusive life and died February 4, 1995, in Switzerland.

Highsmith’s Body of Works

Highsmith’s first novel, Strangers on a Train, was published in 1950. After beig made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock, it became a big success. The story, which centers around two men who meet by chance on a train and decide to "exchange" murders, is representative of much of Highsmith’s work.

Highsmith was the author of more than twenty books. She also published several volumes of short stories. Her works have won the O. Henry Memorial Award, The Edgar Allan Poe Award, and have been nominated for the Edgar. Despite her many awards, Highsmith regrettably did not achieve great fame until after her death. She is now recognized as a master of suspense.

In many ways Highsmith was a writer ahead of her time. Her books, which often dealt with amoral characters, would not be considered as controversial today as they were in the 1950s and 1960s. Highsmith's books contain a keen sense of irony and often begin with a crime that calls for yet another crime to cover up the first one.

A strong character pitted against a weaker one is also a recurring theme in Highsmith's works. In Strangers on a Train, the dominating Bruno tries to convince the weaker Guy Haines to commit murder for him. Similarly, in The Two Faces of January, young American Rydal Keener is lured into helping a crooked businessman Chester MacFarland cover up his crimes because of unresolved issues with his own father.

The Ripley Series

Highsmith is perhaps most well known as the creator of the five-book Ripley Series. In the first book in the series,Tom Ripley, the sociopathic main character, gets away with murder. When a wealthy, concerned father hires Ripley to convince his son to return to home from Europe, Ripley ends up killing him and assuming his identity. Several films based on The Talented Mr. Ripley include Purple Noon, filmed in 1960, The American Friend starring Dennis Hopper filmed in 1977, and most recently The Talented Mr. Ripley starring Matt Damon and Ripley's Game featuring John Malkovich as an older and wiser Ripley.

The Price of Salt

Under the pseydonym Claire Morgan, in 1952, Highsmith published a homosexual love story, The Price of Salt. This story was considered controversial at the time. More of her later published work had distinctive homosexual themes and characters, which leads one to wonder if this theme was not restricted in earlier years by publishing taboos. Some of her characters, such as Bruno in Strangers on a Train appear to be subtly homosexual. However, in an interview she stated that Tom Ripley, who was portrayed as distinctly homosexual in a movie made after her death, was not intended to be homosexual in her novel, but a person who made few attachments to either sex.

Highsmith’s Biography-Beautiful Shadow

Highsmith never wanted a biography written about her when she was alive. After her death, a 534-page authorized biography by author Andrew Wilson was published. Other, unauthorized biographies also hit the bookshelves. In Beautiful Shadow (a reference to the name of Ripley's home in France, Belle Ombre), Wilson pieces together through her notes and journals the portrait of a troubled and conflicted life. Highsmith was plagued all her life by a sense of isolation, alcoholism, and unhappy lesbian and heterosexual affairs. Her flighty lifestyle does not seem to be in keeping with the studious and thought-provoking books she produced.

Always a private person, the author of so many insightful books has perhaps never been correctly portrayed or understood. Her own writing speaks for her. The person she truly was remains veiled in mystery—a beautiful shadow.

The Ripley Series:

  • The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955)
  • Ripley Under Ground (1970)
  • Ripley's Game (1974)
  • The Boy who Followed Ripley (1980)
  • Ripley Under Water (1991)

Novels

  • Strangers on a Train (1950)
  • The Price of Salt aka Carol (1952)
  • Deep Water (1957)
  • A Game for the Living (1958)
  • This Sweet Sickness (1960)
  • The Cry of the Owl (1962)
  • The Two Faces of January (1964)
  • The Glass Cell (1964)
  • A Suspension of Mercy (1965)
  • The Blunderer (1966)
  • Those who Walk Away (1967)
  • The Tremor of Forgery (1969)
  • A Dog's Ransom (1972)
  • Edith's Diary (1977)
  • People who Knock on the Door (1983)
  • Found in the Street (1986)
  • Small G: a Summer Idyll (1995)

Nonfiction

  • Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction (1966)

Short Story Collections

  • Eleven aka The Snail Watcher and Other Stories (1970)
  • Little Tales of Mysogyny (1974)
  • The Animal Lover's Book of Beastly Murder (1975)
  • Slowly, Slowly, in the Wind (1979)
  • The Black House (1981)
  • Mermaids on the Golf Course (1985)
  • Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes (1987)
  • The Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmith (2001)
  • Nothing that Meets the Eye: The Uncollected Stories of Patricia Highsmith (2002)

To read more about Patricia Highsmith, click on this link for an article about Andrew Wilson's Highsmith Biography Beautiful Shadow.

The copyright of the article Patricia Highsmith-Biography in Mystery/Crime Fiction is owned by Vickie Britton. Permission to republish Patricia Highsmith-Biography in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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