The Talented Miss Highsmith
Page 82
The iridescent conversation and radiant spirit of the late Theodora Keogh, my dearest friend, sustained me through much of this work. Don Coates, Pat’s closest living relative and an invaluable resource, opened his archives, his family history, and his Texas connections without reserve. Kate Kingsley Skattebol did the same, placing her considerable intelligence at my service and giving me a clear idea of just how lucky Pat was to have her support during their fifty years of friendship. Jim Amash guided me through the Golden Age of American Comics, introduced me to its living creators, and generously shared his research, his knowledge, and his classic comic books.
Daniel Keel, fonder of Diogenes Verlag and Pat’s literary trustee, allowed me to read the Highsmith diaries and notebooks, provided hitherto unknown details of Pat’s life, and is publishing this biography in Switzerland. Anna von Planta’s experience as Pat’s editor at Diogenes and her astute critical suggestions enriched both my writing and my thinking. At St. Martin’s Press, Tim Bent gave me the entrée into Highsmith country, and Michael Flamini adopted the manuscript as his own, and allowed me the time I needed to write the book I wanted. Vicki Lame picked up the dropped stitches, Ellis Levine unpicked the legal knots, and John Morrone proffered crucial solutions. Russell Galen’s agenting has been, as always, my best support.
The following people opened their private collections to me, greatly enhancing the scope of this work: Jim Amash, the late Jerry Bails, the late Ruth Bernhard, Ronald Blythe, Monique Buffet, Frédérique Chambrelent, Donald Oscar Coates, Ruda Brandel Dauphin, Peter Goedel, Janine Hérisson and Henri Robillot, the late Buffie Johnson, Priscilla Senn Kennedy, Ogden Kruger and Nora Ellen Lewis, Noëlle Loriot, Marijane Meaker, Christa Maerker, Christopher Petit, Annebelle Potin, Janice Robinson, Francis Wyndham.
For repeated interviews in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Switzerland, I am deeply grateful to: Marion Aboudaram, Dr. Gerald Albert, Jim Amash, Larry Ashmead, the late Mark Barty-King, the late Sybille Bedford, Daniel Bell, Pearl Kazin Bell, Bettina Berch, the late Ruth Bernhard, Caroline Besterman, the late Ginette Billard, the late Karl Bissinger, Ronald Blythe, Tabea Blumenschein, Monique Buffet, France Burke, Miriam Burstein, Philippa Burton, Camilla Butterfield, Liz Calder, Claire Cauvin, Frédérique Chambrelent, Heather Chasen, Sarah Clapp, the late Dan Walton Coates, Don Coates, Jean-Étienne Cohen-Séat, the late Betty Comden, Betty Curry, Ruda Brandel Dauphin, Vivien De Bernardi, the late David Diamond, Bert Diener, the late Julia Diener-Diethelm, Joan Dupont, Dorothy Wheelock Edson, the late Will Eisner, the late Vince Fago, Michael Feldman, Gary Fisketjon, Peter Goedel, Robert Gottlieb, the late Elizabeth Hardwick, Janine Hérisson, Patrice Hoffman, Tanja Howarth, the late Anita Huber-Speck, Peter Huber, Helen Kandel Hyman, Peter Hyun, Al Jaffee, Marc Jaffee, the late Buffie Johnson, Olivia Kahn, Deborah Burstein Karp, Stanley Kauffmann, Daniel Keel, Priscilla Senn Kennedy, Jonathan Kent, the late Theodora Roosevelt Keogh, Everett Ray Kinstler, Jack Klaff, M. Knet, Ogden Kruger, Linda Ladurner, Marie-Jaqueline Lancaster, Alice Gershon Lassally, Ricky Leacock, Bob Lemstrom-Sheedy, Nora Ellen Lewis, Marianne Liggenstorfer-Fritsch, Noëlle Loriot, Robert Lumpkin, Christa Maerker, Marijane Meaker, Anne Morneweg, DéDé Moser, Patricia Schartle Myrer, Phyllis Nagy, Samuel Okoshken, Otto Penzler, the late Judith Conklin Peters, Patrick Peters, Christopher Petit, the late Phillip Lloyd Powell, H. M. Qualunque, John Rhodes, Donald S. Rice, Henri Robillot, Janice Robinson, Edward J. Roche, Barbara Roett, Florence Rosen, Jean Rosenthal, Juliette Ryan, Bruno Sager, “Sam,” Josyane Savigneau, Richard Schroeder, Marylin Scowden, Rita Rohner Semel, Kate Kingsley Skattebol, Myra Sklarew, the late Dame Muriel Spark, David Streiff, Mike Sundell, Anne Elisabeth Suter, the late Alex Szogyi, Philip Thompson, Tereska Torres, Tommy Tune, Anna von Planta, Wim Wenders, Donald Windham, the late William Woolfolk, Francis Wyndham.
For important help from individuals and institutions, I am indebted to: Constance A. Brown, registrar, Barnard College; Donald Glassman and Astrid Cravens, archivists, Barnard College Archives (Patricia Highsmith records et al.), New York, New York; Elisabeth Laye, Calmann-Lévy Archives (dossier Patricia Highsmith), Paris, France; Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library (Harper & Row Archives), New York, New York; Maria Webb and Caitlin James, the Library at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, New Jersey; Donna S. Kruse, Fort Worth Public Library (Fort Worth Star-Telegram Archives), Fort Worth, Texas; Gary Fisketjon, Alfred A. Knopf (the Fisketjon publishing files concerning Patricia Highsmith), New York, New York; Tara Wenger, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (Alfred A. Knopf Archives, William Aspenwall Bradley Archives, Jane Bowles Archives), University of Texas, Austin, Texas; Birgitta H. Bond, the James A. Michener Art Museum (Patricia Highsmith records), Doylestown, Pennsylvania; Geraldine Amaranda, archivist, the Menil Collection (Rosalind Constable Archives), Houston, Texas; L’Office National Metéorolgique, Paris, France; New York Public Library (Yaddo Archives, The New Yorker Records), New York, New York; Mary Pisido, Public School 122 (Patricia Highsmith Records), Astoria, Queens, New York; Ridgewood Public Library, Ridgewood, New Jersey; Chris Hayes, the Assessor’s Office of the Village of Ridgewood, New Jersey; Stéphanie Cudré-Mauroux and Ulrich Weber, archivists, Swiss Literary Archives (Patricia Highsmith Archives), Bern, Switzerland; Julie McLoone, archivist, University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections Department (Papers of Lil Picard, 1915–94), Iowa City, Iowa; Tate Gallery Archives (Barbara Ker-Seymer Papers, 1925–81), London, England; University of Maryland Libraries (Djuna Barnes Collection), College Park, Maryland; The New York Society Library, New York, New York; Dean M. Rogers, Vassar College Library, Special Collection (Mary McCarthy Archives), Poughkeepsie, New York; Lesley Leduc and Candace Wait, Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, New York.
For research, information, visual aid, referrals, quotes, kind letters, and other favors, I thank: Phillippe Apeloig, Wynne Alexander, Deirdre Bair, Stanley Bard of the Chelsea Hotel, the late Ginette Billard, Mary Blume, Edith Brandel, the late Hortense Calisher, Valérie Caillon-Gervier, Teresa Davidson, Marianne de Pury, Joe Goodrich, Madeleine Harmsworth, Sally Higginson Begley, Merlin Holland, Miles Hyman, Dannie Jost, Keith Kahla, Marlies Kornfeld, the late Paula Lawrence, Stan Lee, Robert Lumpkin, the late Norman Mailer, Judy McCombs, Honor Molloy, Michael Neal, Robert Nedelkov, Laurence Parade, Ned Rorem, Steven Rowe, David Scribner, Marian Seldes, Liz Smith, Jane Stevenson, Roy Thomas, Julia Van Haaften, Dr. Michael Vasallo, Gore Vidal, Allen Waddle, Camilla Wespe, The Village Voice Bookstore (Paris), the late INSIDE Restaurant (New York), the Cornelia Street Café (Greenwich Village).
For early readings of the manuscript, I thank: Deirdre Bair, Stéphanie Coudré-Mauroux, and Ulrich Weber.
For the following permissions, I thank: Marion Aboudaram for her photograph; Monique Buffet for photographs of and letters from Patricia Highsmith; Florence Sultan of Calmann-Lévy for quotations from Calmann-Lévy’s “dossier Patricia Highsmith” Daniel Keel of Diogenes Verlag for quotations from the novels, cahiers, and diaries of Patricia Highsmith; Diogenes Verlag for the photograph of Daniel Keel and Patricia Highsmith; the Barnard College Archives for photographs, college transcripts, and other materials; Olivia Kahn for Joan Kahn’s letters; Priscilla Senn Kennedy for photographs of Kathleen Wiggins Senn; Ruda Brandel Dauphin for photographs of Marc Brandel and Patricia Highsmith; the Swiss Literary Archives for photographs relating to Patricia Highsmith; Vassar College Library Special Collections for Mary McCarthy’s letters; the late Buffie Johnson for her writings and photographs; the late Ruth Bernhard for her portrait of Patricia Highsmith; the University of Iowa Libraries for letters and photographs of Lil Picard; Bettina Berch for her unpublished interview with Patricia Highsmith; Richard Schroeder for his portrait of Patricia Highsmith; Annebelle Potin for “The Jeannot Album” the Corporation of Yaddo for Joseph Levy’s photograph of West House.
Notes and Sources
Patricia Highsmith used the American dating system in her cahiers and diaries—except, of course, when she didn
’t. I have kept to her wayward customs as nearly as possible, using the numbers and forward slashes she employed for her diary and cahier entries, and reverting unwaveringly to European dating for interviews, letters, articles, and other written communications. Unless otherwise indicated, all primary (and much secondary) material comes from the Swiss Literary Archives in Bern, Switzerland. Translations from the French and Spanish are my own; German translations are by Ulrich Weber, Anna von Planta, and Ina Lannert.
The following abbreviations have been adopted for some of the institutions and proper names cited in the notes:
BCA—Barnard College Archives (Patricia Highsmith Records: photographs, transcripts, college publications), New York, New York
BKS—Barbara Ker-Seymer
CLA—Calmann-Lévy Archives (dossier Patricia Highsmith), Paris, France CURB—Columbia University, Rare Book and Manuscript Library (Harper & Row Archives), New York, New York
DOC—Dan Oscar Coates
FWPL—Fort Worth Public Library (Fort Worth Star-Telegram Archives), Fort Worth, Texas
GFF—Gary Fisketjon’s publishing files concerning Patricia Highsmith; courtesy Gary Fisketjon, New York, New York
HRC—Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (Alfred A. Knopf Archives, William Aspenwall Bradley Archives, Jane Bowles Archives), University of Texas, Austin, Texas
JAMAM—James A. Michener Art Museum (Patricia Highsmith Records), New Hope, Pennsylvania
JBP—Jay Bernard Plangman
KKS—Kate Kingsley Skattebol
MB—Monique Buffet
MC—Menil Collection (Rosalind Constable Archives), Houston, Texas MCH—Mary Coates Highsmith
NM—L’Office National Metéorologique, Paris, France
NYPL—New York Public Library (Yaddo Archives, The New Yorker Records), New York, New York
PH—Patricia Highsmith
PS 122—Public School 122 (Patricia Highsmith Records), Astoria, Queens, New York
SH—Stanley Highsmith
SLA—Swiss Literary Archives (Patricia Highsmith Archives), Bern, Switzerland
TGA—Tate Gallery Archives (Barbara Ker-Seymer Papers, 1925–81), London, England (Courtesy Jane Stevenson)
UIL—University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections Department (Papers of Lil Picard, 1915–94), Iowa City, Iowa
UML—University of Maryland Libraries (Djuna Barnes Collection), College Park, Maryland
VCL—Vassar College Library Special Collections (Mary McCarthy Archives), Poughkeepsie, New York
For simplicity, all written communications are referred to as “letters” and are followed whenever possible by their dates of composition. All interviews are indicated by the abbreviation CWA, “conversation with the author.” All interviews are dated except those with Don Coates, Kate Kingsley Skattebol, and Jim Amash—with whom I conversed so frequently over the years that dating every one of our communications seemed beside the point.
Notes
A Note on Biography
1. CWA Marylin Scowden, 1 Sept. 2002.
2. Diary 10, 14 June 1950.
3. “It is curious that in the most interesting periods of one’s life, one never writes one’s diary. There are some things that even a writer cannot put down in words (at the time). He shrinks from putting them down. And what a loss!” Cahier 22, 8/18/53.
4. “I must remember to use books as books instead of a drug.” Cahier 2, 5/27/40.
5. Cahier 22, 9/25/53.
6. Virginia Woolf, Notebooks, Monk’s House Papers, University of Sussex, quoted by Hermione Lee in Virginia Woolf (New York: Vintage Books, 1999), p. 10.
7. PH letter to Mr. Reichardt, 3 Nov. 1970 (Montmachoux).
8. Cahier 24, 12/15/55.
9. Diary 3, Sept. 17, 1942.
10. PH letter to DOC, 26 Dec. 1968.
11. Diary 8, May 10, 1948.
12. Cahier 28, 8/31/66.
13. PH, Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction (Boston: The Writer, 1966), p. 51.
14. Cahier 26, 10/14/60.
15. Pat scribbled this phrase on a letter from DOC about her mother, Mary, in February 1974, adding: “There is no end and no hope.”
16. Pat thought this about herself as well: “Further consolation: my personal maladies and malaises are only those of my own generation and of my time, heightened.” Cahier 20, 10/9/50.
17. Cahier 24, 1/3/56: “And then alone, unconsoled, one rejoices suddenly at being able to take part in that purely human sport of thinking. One is at last a member of the human race, in the only way one can be. To think, thinking, is the only passport.”
1. How to Begin: Part 1
1. CWA Dr. Jerry Bails, 13 Mar. 2002.
2. Cahier 31, 8/15/72.
3. CWA Don Coates, 20 Apr. 2002. PH herself wrote to President Jimmy Carter, senators, and cabinet officials with her own suggestions for improving the country.
4. Cahier 28, 3/30/66. Also PH, Edith’s Diary (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press 1989), pp. 94–95. Pat had a precedent for her plans to mobilize children: in the early 1940s, when she was writing scripts for comic book publishers, the legendary team of Simon and Kirby created the Boy Commandos, a comic strip about a group of children from Allied countries whose covert and patriotic operations often stopped Hitler’s worst plans.
5. Cahier 11, 10/14/44.
6. “[A]ny manuscript, even a perfectly typed one, looks absolutely awful…. Pages become dog-eared if not grimy, and all in all the manuscript no longer looks like something you want to present with pride to your parents.” PH, Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction, p. 101.
7. Cahier 3, 4/27/41.
8. Cahier 31, 1/30/70.
9. Cahier 32, 11/25/73.
10. Cahier 31, endpaper list of titles.
11. In a 1989 letter to Kingsley Skattebol, she was still calling it “my favorite” typewriter.
12. CWA Phyllis Nagy, 26 June 2002.
13. PH, Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction, p. 68.
14. CWA Josyane Savigneau, 1 July 2002.
15. CWA Henri Robillot, 6 Nov. 2002.
16. CWA Linda Ladurner, 10 May 2003.
17. Barbara Skelton, “Patricia Highsmith at Home,” London Magazine, Aug.–Sept. 1995.
18. Cahier 7, June 12, 1942.
19. Cahier 27, 9/10/62
20. Cahier 5, 12/2/41.
2. How to Begin: Part 2
1. CWA Camilla Butterfield, 17 Dec. 2003.
2. Diary 1, Dec. 31, 1941.
3. PH letter to KKS, 8 Jan. 1965.
4. Diary 13, Nov. 16, 1962.
5. Pat may have lost her head over Caroline Besterman, but she never lost her consciousness of details or objects; she noted the loss of that earring very precisely. See “The Real Romance of Objects: Part I.”
6. Diary 13, Nov. 12, 1962.
7. The Prix Goncourt for 1962 was won by the novel Les Bagages des Sables, written by André Langfus. Pat, nonetheless, notes in her diary that the award was “[w]on by a woman.”
8. Diary 13, Nov. 16–20, 1962.
9. Diary 13, Nov. 26, 1962.
10. Cahier 27, Dec. 5, 1962.
11. Ibid.
12. Cahier 27, Dec. 7, 1962.
13. CWA Ronald Blythe, 20 Sept. 2004. He says that both he and Pat had brick-floored studies.
14. Cahier 27, 12/13/64.
15. Ibid., 12/16/64.
16. PH letter to KKS, 8 Jan. 1965.
17. MCH letter to PH, undated.
18. PH letter to KKS, 8 Jan. 1965.
19. CWA KKS.
20. PH letter to Ronald Blythe, 25 July 1972 (Collection Ronald Blythe).
21. Ibid. (Collection Ronald Blythe).
22. CWA Ronald Blythe, 20 Sept. 2004.
23. Ibid.
24. Cahier 5, 4/12/41.
25. CWA Ronald Blythe, 20 Sept. 2004.
26. CWA Barbara Roett, 18 May 2003.
27. Ibid.
28. It was demolished by a friend of Evelyn Waugh who hoped to put up something even better.
29. PH letter to Alex Szogyi, 12 May 1965.
30. CWA Camilla Butterfield, 17 Dec. 2003.
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. MCH letter to PH, undated.
37. PH letter to DOC, 13 May 1977.
38. PH letter to Alex Szogyi, 10 July 1967.
39. PH letter to Ronald Blythe, 25 July 1972.
40. PH, “No End in Sight” (Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes, London: Bloomsbury, 2005); numerous letters, remarks.
41. “I have in my possession two large envelopes of letters from my mother, going back as far as 1958. These are labelled FOR DOCTOR OR PSYCHIATRIST ONLY.”
42. Cahier 36, 5/28/85.
43. PH letter to KKS, 27 July 1964.
44. PH letter to BKS, 17/2/68.
45. Cahier 2, Dec. 1939. Italics added.
46. MCH letter to Marijane Meaker, “Friday AM 11th” (no other date).
47. Diary 1, Dec. 1941, p. 109.
48. Ibid., p. 112.
49. Cahier 26, 8/4/62.
50. Ibid., 10/7/61.
51. Ginette Billard letter to the author, 23 Mar. 2002.
52. CWA Linda Ladurner, 10 May 2003. Letters to the author 12–16 May 2003.
53. She put this in Cahier 26 in 1960, and ten years later it turned up in slightly altered form in the writings of the dead painter Derwatt in Ripley Under Ground.
54. Cahier 12, 4/6/45.
55. Henry James, “Preface to the New York Edition,” Portrait of a Lady (London: Penguin 2003), pp. 41–55.
56. Chart of Apr. 1945, inserted in Cahier 12.
57. Ibid.
58. CWA Gary Fisketjon, 10 Dec. 2002.
59. CWA Larry Ashmead, 26 Nov. 2002.
60. CWA Otto Penzler, 27 Dec. 2002.
61. Cahier 29, 1/28/67.
62. Cahier 16, 11/20/47.
63. PH, “My First Job,” Oldie, 1993.
64. PH letter to KKS, 1 Dec. 1986.
65. Cahier 9, PH transcription of high school notebooks, 1938.