Patricia Highsmith, one of the great writers of 20th Century American fiction, had a life as darkly compelling as that of her favorite 'hero-criminal', talented Tom Ripley. In this revolutionary biography, Joan Schenkar paints a riveting portrait, from Highsmith's birth in Texas to Hitchcock's filming of her first novel, "Strangers On a Train", to her long, strange, self-exile in Europe. We see her as a secret writer for the comics, a brilliant creator of disturbing fictions, and erotic predator with dozens of women (and a few good men) on her love list. "The Talented Miss Highsmith" is the first literary biography with access to Highsmith's whole story: her closest friends, her oeuvre, her archives. It's a compulsive page-turner unlike any other, a book worthy of Highsmith herself.
- ISBN10 0312303750
- ISBN13 9780312303754
- Publish Date 16 December 2009
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 19 October 2012
- Publish Country US
- Imprint St Martin's Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 656
- Language English