The Talented Miss Highsmith
Page 93
Shamir, Yitzhak
“shattering,” PH’s frequent use of word
Shawn, William
“Sheila” (photographer, lover)
Shepard, Sam
Sherlock Holmes stories
shoes, PH’s fascination with
short-story collections, PH’s, chronological list of
Show Spot restaurant, New York City
Shuster, Joe
Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia
Siegel, Jerry
Signoret, Simone
Silver Dagger Award
“Silver Horn of Plenty, The” (PH story)
Simon, Joe
Simone, Dr. Barbara
Simon & Schuster
Simpson, Babs
Simpson, Sloan
Simpson’s-in-the-Strand, London
Sims, Agnes
Singin’ in the Rain (musical)
Sinnott, Joe
Sitwell, Edith
Sixth Ward grade school, Fort Worth, Texas
Skattebol, Kate. See Kingsley, Kate
Skattebol, Lars
Skelton, Barbara
Sklarew, Myra
sleep, having enough
Sleepless Night, The. See Traffic of Jacob’s Ladder, The
Slowly, Slowly in the Wind (PH short-story collection)
Small g: A Summer Idyll (PH novel)
published posthumously
Smart Set magazine
Smith, Ann
Smith, Liz
Smith, Margerita
Smith, Oliver
smoking, PH’s
snails
copulating
smuggled into France
stories about
“Snails, The” (PH story)
“Snail-Watcher, The” (PH story)
Snail-Watcher and Other Stories, The (PH short-story collection)
Snake Pit, The (film)
Snedens Landing, Palisades, N.Y.
Soho, London
“Some Christmases—Mine or Anybody’s” (PH article)
Sommer, Frieda
Sontag, Susan
South Bank Show, The (TV program)
Spain
Spanish Civil War
Spark, Muriel
Sparkill, N.Y.
Spectator
Sperber, Manès
Spewack, Samuel and Bella
Spider Highsmith (cat)
Spider-Man (comic book character)
Spillane, Mickey
I, the Jury
Spirit, The (graphic novel)
Spivy’s bar
Sprague, Chloe
Spratling, William
Sprüngli sweet shop, Zurich
Spy Smasher (comic book)
Stalin
Standard Publications
Stanislavsky, Konstantin
Stauffer, Teddy
Stein, Gertrude
Stéphane, Nicole
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Stewart, Gen. A. P. (PH relation)
Stewart, Charles (PH ancestor)
Stewart, Leonidas
Stewart, Martha (PH’s great-aunt)
Stewart, Ninion (PH’s ancestor)
Stewart, Oscar Wilkinson (PH’s paternal grandfather)
Stewart, Samuel Smith
Stewart, William (PH’s great-grandfather)
Stewart family
“Still Point of the Turning World, The” (PH story)
Stockbridge, Mass.
Stockholm
Storchen Hotel, Zurich
Stories (unfinished play)
Story-Teller, The (A Suspension of Mercy) (PH novel)
Straightforward Lie, The (PH satire)
Strangers on a Train (Hitchcock film)
Strangers on a Train (PH novel)
Auden reads, not entirely favorably
first idea for
plot
published
signed copy of
started at Yaddo
writing of
Straus, Roger
Streiff, David
Streitfeld, David
Struldbruggs
student revolution of 1968 in Paris
Studio One (TV show)
Sturtevant, Ethel
Südwestrundfunk radio station
suicide, PH’s thoughts on
“Suicide of the Moth” (unused title)
Sullivan, Mary
Sunday Times (London)
Sundell, Mike
Sundell, Nina
Sunset Blvd. (film)
Superheroes (comic book characters)
Superior Selves (comic book characters)
Superman (comic book character)
suspense writers, PH on merits of
Suspension of Mercy, A (PH novel)
Suter, Anne-Elizabeth
Sutherlands (characters). See Jack and Natalia Sutherland
Sutton Place, New York City
Swaim, Donald
Swift, Jonathan, Gulliver’s Travels
Swiss Association of Teachers of English
Swiss Literary Archives, Bern, Switzerland
Switzerland
banking system
estate taxes
origin of comic books in
PH move to
in PH’s imagination
PH’s life in
PH’s self-exile in
reasons why PH liked it
Sylvia (lover)
Symons, A. J. A.
Symons, Julian
Szogyi, Alex
Talented Mr. Ripley, The (PH novel)
Talented Mr. Ripley (continued)
award to
French film of
PH begins
plot
preparation for writing
published
TV script by Marc Brandel
Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes (PH short-story collection)
Tangier
Immeuble Itesa
Tarrytown Castle, Tarrytown, N.Y.
Taxco
Tchaikovsky, P. I.
Tchelitchew, Pavel
Tegna, Switzerland
Catholic church in
PH’s house in (Casa Highsmith)
televangelists (theme)
Tennyson, Alfred
“Terrapin, The” (PH story)
play made from
“Terrors of Basket-Weaving, The” (PH story)
Terry, Megan
Tessa (German lover)
Tex (Allela Cornell’s lover)
Texas
Tey, Josephine
Thatcher, Margaret
Théâtre de l’Épicerie, Paris
Theatre de Lys, New York City
Therese (character)
“These Sad Pillars” (PH story)
Thévenet, Virginie
thin ice
This Sweet Sickness (PH novel)
film made from
teleplay made from
Thomas, Dylan
Thompson, Marjorie
Thompson, Philip
Thompson, Virgil
Thoreau, Henry David
“Those Awful Dawns” (PH story)
Those Who Walk Away (PH novel)
“Three, The” (PH story)
“Three Days with Patricia Highsmith” (article)
Three Steps Down bar
Thrill Boys, The (unused title)
“Thrill Seeker, The” (PH story)
Ticino canton, Switzerland
Tickner, Martin
Tietgens, Rolf
Timely comics
Time magazine
Time Out (London publication)
Times Square, New York City
Tina (poodle)
Tity (friend in Florence)
Tocqueville, Alexis de
Democracy in America
Toklas, Alice B.
Tolstoy, Leo
Tomes Ltd.
Tom Ripley (character)
film rights for
origin of name
wants only “the best”
Töpffer, Rodolph
Topor, Roland
Toronto, Ontario
Torres, Tereska, Women’s Barracks
touching, PH’s aversion to
Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de
Traffic of Jacob’s Ladder, The (The Sleepless Night) (PH unfinished “lost” novel)
transformations, PH obsession with
transgressive acts, in PH plots
transvestites
Trask, Katrina
Trask, Spencer
Tremor of Forgery, The (PH novel)
film adaptation project
TV film of
Trieste
Trudeau, Gary
Truffaut, François
“Tube, The” (unused title for unwritten story)
Tune, Tommy
Tunis
Tunisia
Tuvim, Helen
Tuvim, Judy (Judy Holliday)
Twain, Mark
“Twenty Things I Do Not Like” (PH list)
“Twenty Things I Like” (PH list)
“Two Disagreeable Pigeons” (PH story)
Two Faces of January, The (PH novel)
two men psychologically bound together (theme)
Tynan, Kenneth
typewriter, PH’s
typing style, PH’s
Uhde, Anne
“Uncertain Treasure” (PH story)
“Under a Dark Angel’s Eye” (PH story)
United States
no publisher in, when PH died
PH publicity tour of
University in Exile
University of Texas, Austin
Upper East Side, New York City
Ursula (princess lover)
Ustinov, Peter
Vail, Lawrence
Vail, Sinbad
Val (fan of PH)
Valerie (lover)
Vanderbilt, Anne
Van Gogh, Vincent
van Meegeren, Hans
Velázquez, Diego
Venice
Pensione Seguso
Vera Cruz
Vermeer, Johannes
Vertigo (film)
Vic Van Allen (character)
Vidal, Gore
View magazine
Village Vanguard
Village Voice (newspaper)
Virginias, the
Vogel, Cosette
Vogel, Lucien
Vogt, Maria
Vogue, German
Vogue magazine
Volcker, Paul
von Hoershelman, Natasha
von Planta, Anna
VU magazine
Walker, Robert
Wallace, Edgar
wallet, lost, return of (theme)
Walser, Robert
Walter, Eugene
Walter Stackhouse (character)
Wards Island
Wards Island mental hospital
Washington Post
wasting time, PH refusal to do
Waterbury, Natica
Waugh, Evelyn
Weatherford, Texas
Webber, Andrew Lloyd, Phantom of the Opera
Weird Tales
Wells, H. G.
Weltons, the (of Taxco)
Wenders, Wim
Wertham, Dr. Frederic
Seduction of the Innocent
Wescott, Glenway
Wescott, Lloyd
Wesley, John
West Point, N.Y.
“When the Fleet Was In at Mobile” (PH story)
play made from
When the Sleep Ends (PH play, not produced)
Whip, the (comic book character)
“Whip, The” (PH story)
White, Edmund
White, Sam
Who’s Who
Who’s Who of American Comic Books
Wilde, Dolly
Wilde, Oscar
“The Ballad of Reading Gaol,”
grave and monument of
Wilder, Billy
William Bradley Agency
Williams, Kenneth
Williams, Tennessee
A Streetcar Named Desire,
William Wilson (Poe character)
Wills, Nini
wills, PH’s
first change of
“Will the Lesbian’s Soul Sleep in Peace?” (PH sermon)
Willy Loman (character)
Wilson, Colin, The Outsider
Windham, Donald
Wing Wang (dog)
Winnicott, D. W.
Winston, Daisy
“Winter in the Ticino” (PH article)
Wolf, M.
Woman’s Home Companion
Woman’s World
women
PH’s dislike of
PH’s misunderstanding of, because “they have no jobs,” xv
Women’s Wear Daily
Women’s World Magazine
Women Who Remind Her of Her
Mother
Wonder Woman (comic book)
Wood, Mrs. Richardson
“Woodrow Wilson’s Necktie” (PH story)
Woolf, Virginia
The Waves, xiv
Woolfolk, William
“World’s Champion Ball-Bouncer” (PH story)
World War II
comic books in the fighting
in comics
Writer magazine
“Writer’s Block, Failure, and Depression” (PH article)
writing, PH’s opinions about
Wyndham, Francis
Wynyard, Diana
Yaddo
assets and royalties left to
PH spent two months there, writing Strangers on a Train
proposed bequest to
Yiddish journals
Yorke, Ruth
Young, Marguerite
Young Communist League
“Yuma Baby, The” (PH story)
Yves St-Laurent
Zionism
Zsa Zsa (dog)
Zurich
THE TALENTED MISS HIGHSMITH. Copyright © 2009 by Joan Schenkar. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
FRONTISPIECE: Patricia Highsmith, portrait by Ruth Bernhard, 1948 (Collection Ruth Bernhard)
www.stmartins.com
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Schenkar, Joan.
The talented Miss Highsmith: the secret life and serious art of Patricia Highsmith / Joan Schenkar.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN: 978-0-312-30375-4
1. Highsmith, Patricia, 1921–1995. 2. Authors, American—20th century—Biography. 3. Bisexuals—United States—Biography. I. Title.
PS3558.I366Z87 2009
813'.54—dc22
[B]
2009018363
* Of the expatriate American writer Julien Green, whose roots were also Southern and whose religious and sexual preoccupations were as guilty as hers, Pat wrote: “I feel a rare friendship with J. Green…. I recognize my own thoughts [in his].” In The Counterfeiters of André Gide she saw her own transgressive fascination with the young—along with new ways to represent it. Oscar Wilde’s mannered dialogues and capsizing paradoxes were little mirrors for the girl who thought the “words ‘average’ and ‘normal’…the most ridiculous of the English language.” Henry James gave her the opportunity of a lifetime: she turned his central premise in The Ambassadors upside down (the only way she could imagine it) and smuggled it into The Talented Mr. Ripley. And in Marcel Proust’s resplendent monologues and shimmering sense-memories (she understood just enough of Proust to quote him appropriately) Pat found the explanation for her love life.
* Pat often recorded events days and weeks after they had passed, pretending in her diaries and cahiers that her entries were “current.” They weren’t. She forged her chronologies to give order to
her life, altering the record of her life and the purport of her writing by doing so.
* A single example: One of my play agents now deceased—a brilliant, elderly, dignified woman when I knew her in the 1980s—had been, unknown to me, a lover of Patricia Highsmith four decades before she became my agent. And one sunny afternoon in the Swiss Literary Archives in Bern, I opened a Highsmith diary at random and found the richly explicit physical details of their torrid love affair. It’s a description I still look forward to forgetting.
* Previously unseen and unpublished material from friends, family, lovers, photographers, and filmmakers allows us to join Patricia Highsmith in this chapter in both the physical act of writing and in language which reflects some of the secrets of her style: her coroner’s eye for detail, her hyperconsciousness of the ways human activity can be enumerated, and the high optical refractions she was able to scan into her mostly plain prose.
At twenty, while Pat was still passionate about other people’s writing—and still mixing her metaphors the way a novice bartender might mix her liquors—she dreamt of doing the same thing: “If we were permitted one quarter hour in Shakespeare’s study in 1605, how we should watch his every movement, how hungrily we should notice the lift of his head, the touch of his hand on the edge of his paper…the angle of his back as he writes…. How little we know of history. Time is a column of carbon monoxide fraying into oblivion at its far end like the tail of an old rope” (Cahier 6, 12/12/41).
* The other figure born on 19 January—Pat later named him as her favorite historical character—was the Confederacy’s great hero: General Robert E. Lee.
* From the 1930 American’s children’s classic The Little Engine That Could by the pseudonymous Watty Piper (a “house-name” used by Platt & Munk Publishers), illustrated by Lois Lenski. The Little Blue Engine (characterized as a female) pulls a trainload of Christmas toys over an impassable mountain by repeating to herself the uplifting phrase “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.” Read by every schoolchild in America and still in print today, The Little Engine That Could is among the best self-help books ever written.
* Caroline Besterman is a pseudonym.