Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Notebooks: 1941–1995

A quarter century after the death of novelist Highsmith (1921–1995), fans are given a fascinating and unprecedented look into the “playground for [her] imagination.” Discovered posthumously and edited into one impressive volume, these entries—pulled from Highsmith’s private diaries and notebooks—chronologically span her early years in the U.S. to her death in Switzerland, offering, as von Planta writes, “a holistic understanding... of an author who concealed the personal sources of her material for her entire life.” In the early 1940s, Highsmith (The Price of Salt; Strangers on a Train) reflects on her insatiability, particularly in the realms of reading and sex, “the most profound influence on me—manifesting itself in repressions and negatives.” Throughout, readers get a glimpse into the machinations behind her hit thrillers, such as 1955’s The Talented Mr. Ripley—“I often had the feeling that Ripley was writing”—as well as her lamentations around being an artist: “The unfortunate truth is that art sometimes thrives on unhappiness.” She ruminates on her struggles with her sexuality (“To be creative is... the only mitigating factor, for being homosexual”), while her final diary entry in 1995 faces mortality head-on: “One goes about life as usual, then death arrives maybe suddenly.... In this, death’s more like life, unpredictable.” Devotees and historians alike will linger over every morsel. (Nov.)