“the unequivocal triumph of evil over good and rejoicing in it. I shall make my readers rejoice in it too.”
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Patricia Highsmith
Patricia Highsmith was an American novelist and short story writer widely known for her psychological thrillers, including her series of five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley. She wrote 22 novels and numerous short stories in a career spanning nearly five decades, and her work has led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her writing was influenced by existentialist literature and ques…
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culture · American novelist (1921–1995) · writer · novelist · screenwriter · comics writer · painter · literary scholar · also Patricia Highsmith, Mary Patricia Plangman, Claire Morgan, Highsmith
Born 19 January 1921 · Died 4 February 1995 · Q270635
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2026· 1 entry
1995· 2 entries
At 74, from aplastic anemia and lung cancer at Carita Hospital in Locarno, Switzerland, near Tegna
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Died 1995-02-04.
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1993· 2 entries
Her health deteriorated and she required the help of a home carer
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Was diagnosed with the aplastic anemia and lung cancer that would kill her
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1990· 3 entries
Awarded Officer of Arts and Letters (1990).
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Was made an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters of France
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To have The Price of Salt republished under her own name as Carol she was still reluctant to discuss her sexuality
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1987· 1 entry
Awarded Lucien Barrière Literary Award (1987).
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1986· 1 entry
Highsmith had a successful operation for lung cancer
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1985· 1 entry
Said she disliked "people who believe that some god or other really has control over everything but is not exercising that control just now
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1984· 1 entry
Said she had suffered no injustices because of her sex and that she disliked feminists because they were always "whining, always complaining about something
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1982· 2 entries
Where she continued to publish new work that increasingly divided critics
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Was celibate for the rest of her life
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1981· 1 entry
Highsmith moved into her Swiss home and began writing a new novel, People Who Knock on the Door (1983), about the influence of Christian fundamentalism in America
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1980· 2 entries
Highsmith underwent surgery in May 1980 for blockages in two arteries of her right leg, and in April 1986 she had successful surgery for lung cancer (of a type not related to smoking).
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Highsmith underwent bypass surgery to correct uncontrolled bleeding and serious cardiovascular problems
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1978· 1 entry
Wrote a friend that after her death a future biographer must discuss her love life and "everyone must know I am queer or gay
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1977· 2 entries
Said she no longer believed in God either as an abstract power or as a presence in the human soul
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Saw Wim Wenders's The American Friend, a loose adaptation of Ripley's Game
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1975· 1 entry
Awarded Prix de l'Humour noir for The snail-watcher and other stories (1975).
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1974· 2 entries
Her mother broke off relations with Highsmith by letter in 1974, and lived in a nursing home from 1975 until her death in 1991.
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And lived in a nursing home from 1975 until her death in 1991
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1973· 1 entry
Her doctor advised her that if she did not change her lifestyle she might not live past 55
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1970· 2 entries
Highsmith flew to the United States, where she visited New York and her family in Fort Worth
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Wrote to a friend: "We all become reconciled to being queer and prefer life that way
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1969· 1 entry
Said she was becoming "increasingly misanthropic
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1968· 1 entry
Deliberately lowered her head to a candle and set her hair on fire
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1967· 4 entries
Had several affairs with women who were 20 to 30 years younger
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And eventually settled at Montmachoux in April 1968
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Highsmith wrote: "I adored my mother, and could see no wrong in her, until I was near 17
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“I adored my mother, and could see no wrong in her, until I was near 17.”
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1966· 1 entry
“neither life nor nature cares whether justice is ever done or not.”
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1965· 1 entry
It ended in a physical altercation and Highsmith had to call her doctor, who sedated both women
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1963· 4 entries
Highsmith moved to England where her critical reputation continued to grow
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Said to the owner, "You do realize you have a psychopath in the hall
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To be closer to her lover and eventually settled in Earl Soham, Suffolk, in 1964
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Which introduced her work to many readers
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1961· 1 entry
Meaker included a character based on Highsmith in her novel Intimate Victims (1962)
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1960· 1 entry
Lived together near New Hope, Pennsylvania
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1957· 1 entry
Awarded Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for The Talented Mr. Ripley (1957).
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1954· 1 entry
Worked on a new novel, The Talented Mr
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1953· 1 entry
They lived and traveled together in Europe and America until July 1953, when Hill attempted suicide after Highsmith threatened to end their relationship.
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1952· 1 entry
Was ground breaking for its positive depiction of lesbian relationships and optimistic ending
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1949· 1 entry
Highsmith had an affair with psychoanalyst Kathryn Hamill Cohen, the wife of British publisher Dennis Cohen and founder of Cresset Press, which later published Strangers on a Train
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1948· 4 entries
To help pay for her therapy sessions, in December 1948 Highsmith took a sales job in the toy section of Bloomingdale's department store.
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Writing the draft of Strangers on a Train
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Highsmith met writer Marc Brandel, son of author J
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Started an intermittent relationship with Ann Smith, a painter and designer
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1946· 2 entries
Or 1949 as she was fascinated by their sexuality
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Highsmith read Albert Camus' The Stranger and was impressed by his absurdist vision
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1944· 1 entry
Spent five months in Mexico where she worked on an unfinished novel "The Click of the Shutting"
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1943· 2 entries
Highsmith had a brief affair with artist Allela Cornell, who killed herself three years later over another failed relationship
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Wrote, "there is something perverted within me, that I don't love a girl anymore if she loves me more than I love her
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1942· 4 entries
Wrote: "A woman's stupidity, absence of imagination, her childlike, retarded cruelty, cannot be equalled in the animal kingdom
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Highsmith, despite endorsements from "highly placed professionals," applied without success for a job at publications such as Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Mademoiselle, Good Housekeeping, Time, Fortune, and The New Yorker
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Worked as a writer for comic books while writing her own short stories and novels in her spare time
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Wrote that lesbians were inferior to gay men because they never sought their equals
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1941· 1 entry
Highsmith met Rosalind Constable, a 34-year-old British journalist and literary consultant
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1938· 1 entry
Highsmith entered Barnard College where her studies included English literature, playwriting and short story composition
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1934· 1 entry
Returned to New York to live with her mother and stepfather in Greenwich Village, Manhattan
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1927· 1 entry
Highsmith moved to New York City to live with her mother and her stepfather, commercial artist Stanley Highsmith, whom her mother had married in 1924
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1921· 1 entry
Born 1921-01-19.
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