Christopher Priest

A glimpse of the real Patricia Highsmith through her diaries and notebooks

As well as the late-night parties, alcohol and short-lived love affairs, we see a serious writer at work, determined to resist being pigeonholed

A solitary figure in almost constant movement around Europe: Highsmith on a train between Locarno and Zurich in 1987. [Bridgeman Images] 
issue 04 December 2021

There are three ways of knowing Patricia Highsmith. First, of course, she was the author of 22 novels and several story collections published between 1950 and 1995, the year of her death. Then the woman herself: Mary Patricia Plangman, born in Dallas in 1921, long-term resident of New York City, when young a socially and sexually active lesbian, later in life a mostly solitary literary figure in almost constant movement around Europe.

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