Ignore the World: A Day in the Life of Novelist Patricia Highsmith
“Obsessions are the only things that matter.”
― Patricia Highsmith
Dubbed “the Poet of Apprehension” by Novelist Graham Greene, Patricia Highsmith is probably best known for Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley (for which she won the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière). She was born as Mary Patricia Plangman but took her stepfather’s last name when her mother remarried. She was born in Fort Worth, Texas but grew up in New York (Manhattan and Astoria, Queens). In 1952, Highsmith published “the first lesbian novel with a happy ending” — The Price of Salt under the pseudonym Claire Morgan. In 1990, Highsmith republished the book as Carol under her own name. The New Yorker notes that The Price of Salt, or Carol, is the only Highsmith novel where “no violent crime occurs.” Highsmith spent much of her life as a recluse despite her many lovers. She died at 74 in Switzerland and left three million dollars of her estate to the Yaddo artist community in upstate New York.
In Mason Currey’s first Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, he describes Patricia Highsmith’s prolific writing routine:
“Highsmith wrote daily, usually for three or four hours in the morning, completing two thousand words on a good day.”
