Finished Th 12/22/16
I got this book on the internet on Mo 6/19/06 and I'm sure that I looked through it, but this is the first time that I completed it.
This is a wonderful biography and I definitely want to check out some of the library's selections by Highsmith.
1921-1995 Born in Ft. Worth, Texas
Lived NYC/Mexico/London/Paris/Switzerland
Google Map link to NYC apartment-
https://www.google.com/maps/place/353+E+56th+St,+New+York,+NY+10022/@40.7578042,-73.9659743,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c258e6bacf8781:0xe48fc52b2dac41fe!8m2!3d40.7578002!4d-73.9637856!6m1!1e1?hl=en
Her parents divorced ten days before she was born and she didn't meet her real father, Jay Bernard Plagman (Jay B.) until many years later.
Mary Highsmith tried to abort her by drinking turpentine. "Funny how you've always loved the smell of turpentine".
Stanley and Mary were graphic illustrators and left Pat in Ft. Worth with her maternal grandmother, Willie Mae.
After graduating Barnard, Pat worked as a writer of comic books while writing STRANGERS ON THE TRAIN and THE PRICE OF SALT.
Lived for a few months at the Yaddo Colony. She left most of her estate (3 million) to this organization. In the late 19th century a family lived on this estate. They made their money selling shoes to the Northern Army during the Civil War. The woman contracted diphtheria. Her doctor said that she was going to die, but not contagious. He allowed her to see the two children. They contracted the disease and the mother recovered. Wow!
Link to Yaddo-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaddo
PRICE OF SALT is based on an incident from her life. She did work in a toy store and did fall madly in love with a woman that came into the store to buy a toy for her child. CAROL is the film made from this novel. I will see this again.
'Preferred the company of animals to that of people and once said, "My imagination functions much better when I don't have to speak to people. Her chronic alcoholism intensified as she grew older.'
Highsmith's link to wikipedia-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Highsmith
Truly a bizarre character; racist and antisemite; primarily lesbian and never really was able to establish a life-long bond with anyone. However, she did have longtime friends, including Saul Bellow and Arthur Koestler (both Jewish).
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