The Talented Miss Highsmith (99 page)

To the many people around the world who offered their time, their minds, and their materials, I owe too much to tell here. This book is the down payment on my very great debt to them.

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.

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:

 

 

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.