The Talented Miss Highsmith (115 page)

Hearst, William Randolph

Heath, A. M.

Heinemann

Helen (classmate at Barnard)

Hell Gate

Hell Gate Bridge

“Hell on Wheels” (PH story)

Heloise Plisson (character)

Hemingway, Ernest

Henry (dachshund)

Henry Street Settlement House

Herbert L. (lover)

Herbst, Josephine

Hérisson, Janine

Hermès

“Heroine, The” (PH story)

Heumann, Rainer

Hidalgo del Parral

High School of Music and Art, New York City

Highsmith, Henry (black man, unrelated to PH)

Highsmith, Mary Coates (mother)

(1921) divorces J. B. Plangman shortly before PH's birth

(1959) trip in Europe with PH

(1965) visits London unexpectedly

(1974) deteriorating state of

(1975) accidentally sets Texas house on fire, and is installed in a care facility

(1991) death at age ninety-five

antagonism of PH toward

believed that PH should have been an actress

biography

book dedications to

career

Christian Science belief

cruel letters from and to PH

deteriorated state of, in nursing home

friendships of

in Paris

in PH's early will

PH's “love” for

PH's reversal of feeling for

prying of

revealed authorship of

Price of Salt

“shattering” effect on PH

women who remind PH of

Highsmith, Patricia

“awfulness” of presence of

bad health of

birthday of

catalogue of possessions now stored in Swiss Literary Archives

characters based on

constant house moves of

dirty jokes of

double life of, as writer and liver of life

double taxation on

drinking of

food avoided by

handwriting (hieroglyphics)

helpful people surrounding

“a horrible human being”

as a hostess

as a houseguest

ideas prolific “as rats' orgasms”

interviews with

a libertarian

library of, in Swiss Literary Archives

liquid nourishment of

love affairs.
See

love affairs, PH's magnetism of

making furniture

many selves of

name of Highsmith, doubtful legality of

name of Mary

name of Patsy Plangman

perversity of, in the upside-down sense

photographs of

pseudonyms adopted by, for writing letters of political opinion

psychoanalysis of

ranting of

reading obsessively

religious family background

religiousness of

settlement of estate

a smoker

smuggler of snails

toughness of

and trains

travels

unconventional ideas of

wants only “the best”

wills of.
See
wills of PH

writing process

Highsmith, Patricia, appearance

absence of neck

beauty of youth, ravaged by the years

clothing, elegance of

complexion as she aged

large hands

mistaken for a man, and directed to men's lavatory

small breasts

Highsmith, Patricia, biography (1921) birth, name Mary Patricia Highsmith

(1921–26) raised in Coates house in Fort Worth, Texas

(1927–38) living in New York City with parents

(1933) first published work (letters from summer camp)

(1933–34) returned to Fort Worth and left with grandmother

(1934–38) in New York City attending high school

(1935) first story (lost)

(1937) first published stories

(1938–42) attends Barnard College while living in New York City

(1942) graduates, first writing job for the

Jewish press

(1943–44) trip to Mexico

(1943) first love affairs, with women and some men

(1943) writes for comic book companies for seven years

(1948) at Yaddo

(1949) trip to Europe

(1950) first published novel,
Strangers on a Train

(1951) travels through Europe

(1952) publishes
The Price of Salt
under a pseudonym

(1953) return to Fort Worth

(1955) publishes
The Talented Mr. Ripley

(1956) gives up New York apartment and lives in environs of New York City

(1959) traveling in Europe

(1960) living in Pennsylvania

(1962) traveling in Europe, meets “Carolyn Besterman”

(1963) living in Sussex, England

(1967) moves to the Île-de-France

(1968) buys house in Montmachoux, in the Île-de-France

(1970) buys house at 21 rue de la Boissière, in Moncourt

(1970) visits mother in Fort Worth

(1972) death of Stanley Highsmith

(1973) visits mother in Fort Worth

(1975) mother burns house, is institutionalized

(1978) at Berlin Film Festival

(1978) last love affair

(1980) French tax raid on Moncourt house

(1980) buys house in Aurigeno, Switzerland

(1981) partial move to Aurigeno while residing in Moncourt

(1983) drove car into train

(1986) operation for lung tumor

(1986) sells Moncourt house

(1987) buys land in Tegna and builds Casa Highsmith designed by Tobias Amman

(1988) moves to Tegna

(1990) Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

(1992) publicity tour of U.S.

(1993) diagnosed as anemic and stops drinking briefly

(1995) changes will, leaving most to Yaddo

(1995) dies in hospital at Locarno

(1995) memorial service in Tegna

chronology of

Fort Worth years

self-exile in Europe

Highsmith, Patricia, literary career

American publishers

American publishers, none after 1985

amorality of works

awards

books not selling in the U.S.

books should not be in prison libraries

critics' reviews

deadpan style

dedications

European publishers

French publishers

German-language publishers

influences on

literary executors

not pleased to make revisions

an ordinary day of writing

pages of writing per day

papers, in the Swiss Literary Archives, Bern

plotting of PH novels and stories

productiveness of

props for, from whatever was at hand

prose style, flat in later books

pseudonyms used

publishers

slow beginnings of books

typewriting of

unconventionality of

unused titles

unusualness of writings

unwritten stories

See also
cahiers; notebooks; poems by PH

Highsmith, Patricia, quoted

on writers

Highsmith, Stanley

(1924) marries Mary Coates

(1933) Mary Coates's promise to divorce

(1972) dies, and PH asks for autopsy report

career

death of

marriage problems

PH's hatred toward

Highsmith, Stanley and Mary (as PH's parents)

Highsmith Country

Highsmith family

Hildesheimer, Wolfgang

Hill, Ellen Blumenthal

character based on

love affair with

suicide attempts

Hill, Mr. (husband of Ellen Hill)

Hill Country Arts Foundation

Himes, Chester

Hinduism

Hitchcock, Alfred

Hitchcock, Patricia

Hitler, Adolf

Mein Kampf

Hoffman, Patrice

Hofmannsthal, Raimund von

Holding, Elizabeth Sanxay

Holliday, Judy (Judith Tuvim)

Holocaust

Hölstein, Switzerland

Home and Food
magazine

homoerotic fantasy (theme)

homosexual love story, with a happy ending

homosexuals, male, novelists

honesty, PH on

Hook, Sidney

Hopper, Dennis

Hopper, Edward

Horney, Karen

Hortense (snail)

Hotel Earle, New York City

Houdini, Harry

Howard, Brian

Howard, Lewis

Howard Ingham (character)

Howarth, Tanja

Huber, Peter

Hughes, Dorothy B.

Hughes, Langston

Hughes, Richard E.

Human Anatomy, The
(book used by PH's artist parents)

Human Torch, The
(comic book)

Hutton, Barbara

Hyman, Stanley Edgar

 

“I Despise Your Life” (PH story)

Île-de-France

Immeuble Itesa, Tangier

Impossible Interviews
(radio show)

incest (theme)

“Incomplete Old Stories” folder of PH

Indianapolis, Ind.

Infatuation of the Blue Sailors
(film)

Ingendaay, Paul

Inhuman Ones, The
(unused title)

“Innocent Witness” (TV script)

International Herald Tribune

International Refugee Organisation (IRO)

International Women's Movement

interviews with PH

forged diary entries about

fraudulent

lies told

PH complaints about

“In the Plaza” (PH story)

Intifada

invitations from PH, best honored in the breach

Isaacs, Leo

Isaacson, Bobby

Ischia

Isherwood, Christopher,
Christopher and His

Kind

Israel

PH's letters criticizing

Israeli-Arab Six-Day War

Istanbul

Italians (in America)

Italy, PH first trip to

 

Jack and Natalia Sutherland (characters)

Jackson, Derek

Jackson, Michael

Thriller

Jackson, Shirley

Jacqui (Parisian lover)

character based on

Jaffe, Marc

Jaffee, Al

Jakob's Bierstube-Restaurant, Zurich

Jalapa

James, Henry

The Ambassadors,
xiii

The Golden Bowl

James, Jesse

James, M. R.

James, William

James I of Scotland (PH's ancestor)

Jamison, Kay Redfield

Jane Street, Greenwich Village, New York City

Janssens, Abe

“Japanese Wife Joke, The,”

Jap Buster Johnson
(comic book)

Jeanne T. (lover)

Jean P. (lover)

Jebb, Julian

Jesus Christ

many references to, in PH's diaries and notebooks

Jewish Family Year Book, The

Jewish press

PH writing for

Jews

in America

in the comic book industry

Eastern European

PH blamed for her tax problem

PH railing against

PH's dentists

PH's hatred of, and many good friends among

PH's relations with

refugees from Europe

women lovers of PH

young men dated by PH

Jo (Barnard classmate)

Joan S. (lover)

Johnson, Buffie

Johnson, Margot

jokes, PH's

dirty, telling of

throwing a dead rat in visitors' window

Jones, Miss (from Chicago)

Joselin, Jean-François

journalists, PH's view of

Joyce, James

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Joyce, Stanislaus