Patricia Highsmith
Who was Patricia Highsmith?
What are Patricia Highsmith’s most famous works?
What is notable about The Talented Mr. Ripley?
What is The Price of Salt about?
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Patricia Highsmith (born January 19, 1921, Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.—died February 4, 1995, Locarno, Switzerland) was an American novelist and short-story writer best known for psychological thrillers in which she delved into the nature of guilt, innocence, good, and evil. Her works include the novels Strangers on a Train (1950) and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955), the title character for which inspired other books by Highsmith as well as many film, stage, and television adaptations.
- Original name: Mary Patricia Plangman
- Other names: Claire Morgan
- Died: February 4, 1995, Locarno, Switzerland
- Occupation: Writer (crime fiction and mysteries)
- Notable books: Strangers on a Train (1950), The Price of Salt (1952; also published as Carol), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955)
Highsmith, whose parents divorced when she was an infant and who subsequently took her stepfather’s surname, graduated from Barnard College in New York City in 1942 and traveled to Europe in 1949, eventually settling there. In 1950 she published Strangers on a Train, an intriguing story of two men, one ostensibly good and the other ostensibly evil, whose lives become inextricably entangled. The following year the novel was made into a movie by Alfred Hitchcock, using a screenplay by Raymond Chandler and Czenzi Ormonde. That year the Mystery Writers of America nominated Highsmith for an Edgar Award for best first novel; it was the first of several Edgar Award nominations for the author.
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) is the first of several books featuring the adventures of a likable murderer, Tom Ripley, who takes on the identities of his victims. The novel won various awards for mystery writing. Ripley also appears in Highsmith’s Ripley Under Ground (1970), Ripley’s Game (1974), The Boy Who Followed Ripley (1980), and Ripley Under Water (1991). Several novels in the Ripley series were adapted for TV and film. Notable among these are Plein soleil (1960; Purple Noon), starring Alain Delon as Ripley; The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), with Matt Damon in the title role; and Ripley (2024), starring Andrew Scott.
Among Highsmith’s other books are The Price of Salt (1952; written under the pseudonym Claire Morgan), a tale of a love affair between a married woman and a younger, unmarried woman. The novel was considered groundbreaking when it was released because of its positive treatment of a lesbian romance. In 2015 it was filmed as Carol, the name under which the novel was published in 1990 and thereafter.
In 1975 Highsmith published The Animal-Lover’s Book of Beastly Murder, a short-story collection about the killing of humans by animals. Her other collections include The Black House (1981) and Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes (1987). Highsmith also wrote on the craft of writing. In her Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction (1966; revised and enlarged 1981), she held that “art has nothing to do with morality, convention, or moralizing.”
Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Notebooks, 1941–1995 (edited by Anna von Planta) was published posthumously in 2021. The film A Talent for Murder (2026), starring Helen Mirren as Highsmith, is a drama that imagines the famously reclusive and cantankerous author’s later life in Locarno, Switzerland, where she moved in 1981. The movie is based on Joanna Murray-Smith’s 2014 play Switzerland.
