Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Notebooks
Patricia Highsmith
Nov 2021 · Weidenfeld & Nicolson · Narrated by Caroline Hewitt
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41 hr 51 min
Unabridged
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'It promises to be one of the literary highlights of 2021 - publication of the diaries of Patricia Highsmith, one of the most conflicted, fascinating novelists of the 20th century' Edward Helmore, Guardian
Patricia Highsmith's first novel was picked up by Hitchcock and was a world-wide success. Her second novel was meant to tell everything about her true inside and dare what no-one had dared to write before: a lesbian love-story with a happy ending. But when she eventually relented to publish it under a pseudonym, it was a decision that would shape her life more than she could have guessed at the time. Henceforth she would vent her inner life either encoded in her future novels or - unbeknownst to most - in the 18 diaries and 38 notebooks she kept throughout her life. The way she talked about her journals - especially her notebooks - indicates that she always meant to bring them into the open one day. To publish them now means to tell the story of a strong woman battling with the social norms and sexual mores of her time in her own words.
Her journals reveal a most complex life that might help explain why her novels were so much more than just crime novels: world literature.
For the centenary year of Highsmith's birth in 2021, the first time Patricia Highsmith's personal journals, edited down to 650 pages, will be available to the public.
Patricia Highsmith's first novel was picked up by Hitchcock and was a world-wide success. Her second novel was meant to tell everything about her true inside and dare what no-one had dared to write before: a lesbian love-story with a happy ending. But when she eventually relented to publish it under a pseudonym, it was a decision that would shape her life more than she could have guessed at the time. Henceforth she would vent her inner life either encoded in her future novels or - unbeknownst to most - in the 18 diaries and 38 notebooks she kept throughout her life. The way she talked about her journals - especially her notebooks - indicates that she always meant to bring them into the open one day. To publish them now means to tell the story of a strong woman battling with the social norms and sexual mores of her time in her own words.
Her journals reveal a most complex life that might help explain why her novels were so much more than just crime novels: world literature.
For the centenary year of Highsmith's birth in 2021, the first time Patricia Highsmith's personal journals, edited down to 650 pages, will be available to the public.
About the author
Highsmith grew up in New York City and studied English composition, playwriting and short story prose at Barnard College. Her first novel STRANGERS ON A TRAIN was published in 1950, and Alfred Hitchcock's film adaptation of the book the following year considerably enhanced Highsmith's reputation. In 1952, she published her second novel THE PRICE OF SALT under the nom de plume Claire Morgan. It became a bestseller and was later reissued as CAROL (1990) under Highsmith's own name. In 1955, she published THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY which gained huge popularity and earned Highsmith Le Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in 1957. During her long career, Highsmith wrote twenty-two novels and nine short story collections. There have been dozens of film and television adaptations based on her work, and she remains one of the best-loved writers of psychological suspense.
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