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Patricia Highsmith
Patricia Highsmith 1921–95, American novelist, b. Fort Worth, Tex., as Mary Patricia Plangman, grad. Barnard College (B.A. 1942). She first traveled to Europe in 1949 and moved there in 1963, living in Italy, France, and Switzerland. After the publication of her first novel, Strangers on a Train (1950, film by Alfred Hitchcock 1951), she was acclaimed a master of the novel of psychological menace. Dubbed a "poet of apprehension" by Graham Greene, Highsmith wrote more than 20 novels, the best known of which feature a handsome psychopath named Tom Ripley as their antihero. These include The Talented Mister Ripley (1955, films 1960 and 1999), Ripley's Game (1974), The Boy Who Followed Ripley (1980), and Ripley under Water (1991). In addition to her crime fiction, Highsmith wrote a novel of lesbian love, The Price of Salt (1952, originally pub. under the pseud. Claire Morgan), the nonfiction Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction (1966, rev. ed. 1981), and the posthumously published novel Small g (1995, repr. 2004). Her chilling tales of crime and cruelty appeared in a number of collections as well as in Selected Stories (2001) and Nothing That Meets the Eye: The Uncollected Stories of Patricia Highsmith (2002).
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"Patricia Highsmith." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 31 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Patricia Highsmith." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 31, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-HighsmthP.html "Patricia Highsmith." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 31, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-HighsmthP.html |
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Highsmith, Patricia
Highsmith, Patricia (1921–95), writer of mixed German and English-Scots parentage, educated at Barnard College, New York. Her stylish crime novels have a distinctively black humour: the best-known (The Talented Mr Ripley, 1956; Ripley Under Ground, 1971; Ripley's Game, 1974, etc.) feature her amoral anti-hero, the leisure-loving amateur villain Tom Ripley, resident in France. The Price of Salt, a novel with a lesbian theme and a happy ending, was published pseudonymously (under the name of Claire Morgan) in 1952, and appeared under her own name in 1990, retitled Carol. Her last novel was Small g: A Summer Idyll (1995), about a bohemian café in Zurich.
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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Highsmith, Patricia." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 31 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Highsmith, Patricia." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 31, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-HighsmithPatricia.html MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Highsmith, Patricia." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 31, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-HighsmithPatricia.html |
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Highsmith, Patricia
Highsmith, Patricia (1921–95), author of very popular mystery novels and comparable short stories produced nearly annually since her first novel of mystery and intrigue, Strangers on a Train (1950).
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Cite this article
James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Highsmith, Patricia." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. 31 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Highsmith, Patricia." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. (May 31, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-HighsmithPatricia.html James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Highsmith, Patricia." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Retrieved May 31, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-HighsmithPatricia.html |
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