Snail-Watcher Patricia Highsmith First Edition 1970 Horror Occult Terror Rare

Description: The Snail-Watcher and other StoriesPatricia HighsmithPublished by Doubleday, 1970 Highsmith, Patricia. THE SNAIL-WATCHER AND OTHER STORIES. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1970. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Scarce collection of masterful tales of psychological horror including the nasty "The Snail-Watcher" and the Edgar nominated "The Terrapin," the latter influenced by her love-hate relationship with her mother. "In this volume of strange and often disturbing tales, Highsmith demonstrates her skill as a short-story writer." "This is a first-rate collection that will make you want to read more of Highsmith's short fiction ..." - Pronzini and Muller, 1001 Midnights, The Aficionado's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction, pp. 360-1. This collection was published in Britain later the same year by Heinemann as ELEVEN: SHORT STORIES. Ashley, Who's Who in Horror and Fantasy Fiction, p. 93. Barron, ed., Fantasy and Horror 6-168. Hubin (1994), p. 400 Patricia Highsmith (born Mary Patricia Plangman; January 19, 1921 – February 4, 1995)[1] was an American novelist and short story writer widely known for her psychological thrillers, including her series of five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley. She wrote 22 novels and numerous short stories in a career spanning nearly five decades, and her work has led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her writing was influenced by existentialist literature,[2] and questioned notions of identity and popular morality.[3] She was dubbed "the poet of apprehension" by novelist Graham Greene.[4] Born in Fort Worth, Texas, and mostly raised in her infancy by her maternal grandmother, Highsmith was taken to New York City at the age of six to live with her mother and stepfather. After graduating college in 1942, she worked as a writer for comic books while writing her own short stories and novels in her spare time. Her literary breakthrough came with the publication of her first novel Strangers on a Train (1950) which was adapted into a 1951 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Her 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley was well received in the United States and Europe, cementing her reputation as a major exponent of psychological thrillers. In 1963, Highsmith moved to England where her critical reputation continued to grow. Following the breakdown of her relationship with a married Englishwoman, she moved to France in 1967 to try to rebuild her life. Her sales were now higher in Europe than in the United States which her agent attributed to her subversion of the conventions of American crime fiction. She moved to Switzerland in 1982 where she continued to publish new work that increasingly divided critics. The last years of her life were marked by ill health and she died of aplastic anemia and lung cancer in Switzerland in 1995. The Times said of Highsmith: "she puts the suspense story in a toweringly high place in the hierarchy of fiction."[5]: 180 Her second novel, The Price of Salt, published under a pseudonym in 1952, was ground breaking for its positive depiction of lesbian relationships and optimistic ending.[6]: 1 [7] She remains controversial for her antisemitic, racist and misanthropic statements.[8] Early lifeHighsmith was born Mary Patricia Plangman in Fort Worth, Texas on January 19, 1921. She was the only child of commercial artists Jay Bernard Plangman (1889–1975) and Mary Plangman (née Coates; September 13, 1895 – March 12, 1991). Her father had not wanted a child and had persuaded her mother to have an abortion. Her mother, after a failed attempt to abort her by drinking turpentine, decided to leave Plangman. The couple divorced nine days before their daughter's birth.[9]: 63–64 In 1927 Highsmith moved to New York City to live with her mother and her stepfather, commercial artist Stanley Highsmith, whom her mother had married in 1924.[9]: 565 Patricia excelled at school and read widely, including works by Jack London, Louisa May Alcott, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, and John Ruskin.[10]: 33–42 At the age of nine, she became fascinated by the case histories of abnormal psychology in The Human Mind by Karl Menninger, a popularizer of Freudian analysis.[9]: 92 In the summer of 1933, Highsmith attended a girls' camp and the letters she wrote home were published as a story two years later in Woman's World magazine. She received $25 for the story.[10]: 44, 55 After returning from camp, she was sent to Fort Worth and lived with her maternal grandmother for a year.[11] She called this the "saddest year" of her life and felt "abandoned" by her mother. In 1934 she returned to New York to live with her mother and stepfather in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.[9]: 565–566 She was unhappy at home. She hated her step father and developed a life-long love–hate relationship with her mother, which she later fictionalized in stories such as "The Terrapin", about a young boy who stabs his mother to death.[10]: 55 [9]: 64, 84, 100–102 She attended the all-girl Julia Richman High School where she achieved a B minus average grade.[9]: 112 She continued to read widely—Edgar Allan Poe was a favorite—and began writing short stories and a journal. Her story "Primroses are Pink" was published in the school literary magazine.[10]: 49–58 In 1938 Highsmith entered Barnard College where her studies included English literature, playwriting and short story composition. Fellow students considered her a loner who guarded her privacy but she formed a life-long friendship with fellow student Kate Kingsley Skattebol. She continued to read voraciously, kept diaries and notebooks, and developed an interest in eastern philosophy, Marx and Freud. She also read Thomas Wolfe, Marcel Proust and Julien Green with admiration. She published nine stories in the college literary magazine and became its editor in her senior year.[10]: 63–73, 90–92 Apprentice writerAfter graduating in 1942, Highsmith, despite endorsements from "highly placed professionals," applied without success for a job at publications such as Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Mademoiselle, Good Housekeeping, Time, Fortune, and The New Yorker.[9]: 130 She eventually found work with FFF Publishers which provided copy for various Jewish publications. The job, which paid $20 per week, lasted only six months but gave her experience in researching stories.[10]: 93–94 In December 1942 Highsmith found employment with comic book publisher Sangor–Pines where she earned up to $50 per week. She wrote "Sergeant Bill King" stories, contributed to Black Terror and Fighting Yank comics, and wrote profiles such as Catherine the Great, Barney Ross, and Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker for the "Real Life Comics" series. After a year, she realized she could make more money and have more flexibility for travel and serious writing by working freelance for comics and she did so until 1949. From 1943 to 1946, under editor Vincent Fago at Timely Comics, she contributed to its U.S.A. Comics wartime series, writing scenarios for characters such as "Jap Buster Johnson" and The Destroyer. For Fawcett Publications she scripted characters including "Crisco and Jasper." She also wrote for True Comics, Captain Midnight and Western Comics. Working for comics was the only long-term job Highsmith ever held.[9]: 27–28, 151–155, 167–175 [12][13] Highsmith considered comics boring "hack work" and was determined to become a novelist. In the evenings she wrote short stories which she submitted, unsuccessfully, to publications such as The New Yorker. In 1944 she spent five months in Mexico where she worked on an unfinished novel "The Click of the Shutting". On her return to Manhattan she worked on another unfinished novel "The Dove Descending".[10]: 96, 102–111 The following year, "The Heroine," a story about a pyromaniac nanny that she had written in 1941, was published by Harper's Bazaar. The publishers Knopf wrote her that they were interested in publishing any novels she might have. Nothing, however, came from their subsequent meeting. Highsmith's agents advised her that her stories needed to be more "upbeat" to be marketable but she wanted to write stories that reflected her vision of the world.[10]: 119–120 In 1946, Highsmith read Albert Camus' The Stranger and was impressed by his absurdist vision. The following year she commenced writing Strangers on a Train, and her new agent submitted an early draft to a publisher's reader who recommended major revisions. Based on the recommendation of Truman Capote, Highsmith was accepted by the Yaddo artist's retreat during the summer of 1948, where she worked on the novel.[10]: 122–125, 137–143 Strangers on a Train was accepted for publication by Harper & Brothers in May 1949. The following month, Highsmith sailed to Europe where she spent three months in England, France and Italy. In Italy, she visited Positano which would later become the major setting for her novel The Talented Mr. Ripley. She read an anthology of Kierkegaard on the trip and declared him her new "master".[10]: 155–159 Established writerHighsmith returned to New York in October 1949 and began writing The Price of Salt, a novel about a lesbian relationship. Strangers on a Train was published in March 1950 and received favorable reviews in The New Yorker, New York Herald Tribune and New York Times. The novel was shortlisted for the Edgar Allan Poe Prize and Alfred Hitchcock secured the film rights for $6,000. Sales increased after the release of the film.[5]: 59–60, 84–85 In February 1951, she left for Europe for the publication of the novel in England and France. She stayed for two years, traveling and working on an unfinished novel, "The Traffic of Jacob's Ladder," which is now lost.[10]: 168–170, 173–183 She wrote Skattebol, "I can imagine living mostly in Europe the rest of my life."[9]: 149 345 E. 57th Street, NYC – Residence of Patricia HighsmithHighsmith was back in New York in May 1953. The Price of Salt had been published in hardback under a pseudonym the previous May, and sold well in paperback in 1953. It was praised in the New York Times Book Review for "sincerity and good taste" but the reviewer found the characters underdeveloped. The novel made Highsmith a respected figure in the New York lesbian community, but as she did not publicly acknowledge authorship, it did not further her literary reputation.[10]: 172 [5]: 128 In September 1953, Highsmith traveled to Fort Worth where she completed a fair copy of The Blunderer which was published the following year. In 1954 she worked on a new novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley, about a young American who kills a rich compatriot in Italy and assumes his identity. She completed the novel in six months in Lenox, Massachusetts, and Santa Fe and Mexico.[10]: 189–194, 197–198 The Talented Mr. Ripley was published in December 1955 to favorable reviews in the New York Times Book Review and The New Yorker, their critics praising Highsmith's convincing portrait of a psychopath.[9]: 351 [5]: 118 The novel went on to win the Edgar Allan Poe Scroll of the Mystery Writers of America.[10]: 198–199 Highsmith biographer Richard Bradford states that the novel "forged the basis for her long term reputation as a writer."[5]: 110 Highsmith moved to the affluent hamlet of Palisades, New York State, in 1956 and lived there for over two years. In March 1957, her story "A Perfect Alibi" was published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, beginning a long-term association with the publication.[10]: 206 She also completed two further novels, Deep Water (published in 1957) and A Game for the Living (1958), and a children's book, Miranda the Panda is on the Veranda (1958), that she co-authored with Doris Sanders.[5]: 118–125 In December 1958, Highsmith moved back to Manhattan where she wrote This Sweet Sickness. The novel was published in February 1960 to generally favorable reviews. From September 1960, she lived near New Hope, Pennsylvania. There she saw René Clement's Plein Soleil (1960), the French film adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley, but she was disappointed by its moralistic ending.[10]: 224 She also wrote The Cry of the Owl which she completed in February 1962. Although Highsmith considered it one of her worst novels, novelist Brigid Brophy later rated it, along with Lolita, as one of the best since World War II.[10]: 216–217, 229–230, 236–240 Highsmith spent 1962 shuttling between New Hope and Europe and finishing the novel The Two Faces of January. She had fallen in love with a married English woman and wanted to live closer to her. In February 1963, she moved permanently to Europe.[5]: 136–143 England and FranceHighsmith rented an apartment in Positano where she worked on her prison novel The Glass Cell. She then traveled to London where she promoted The Cry of the Owl, newly published in Britain. In November 1963 she moved to the festival town of Aldeburgh, Suffolk, and the following year she bought a home in the nearby village of Earl Soham where she lived for three years.[5]: 143–148 During this time, Highsmith's critical reputation in the United Kingdom grew. Francis Wyndham wrote a long article on Highsmith for the New Statesman in 1963 which introduced her work to many readers.[9]: 577 Brigid Brophy, also writing in the New Statesman, praised The Two Faces of January (1964) stating that Highsmith had made the crime story literature. Julian Simmons in The Sunday Times commended Highsmith's subtle characterization. The novel won the Silver Dagger Award of the British Crime Writers' Association for best foreign novel of 1964.[10]: 231–232 Highsmith was quarreling with her mother and under severe emotional strain due to her difficult relationship with her English lover. She was drinking heavily and her private and public behavior was becoming more eccentric and antisocial. When her love affair ended in late 1966, she decided to move to France.[5]: 150–157, 160–163, 166 After a brief visit to Tunisia, Highsmith moved to the Île-de-France in 1967 and eventually settled at Montmachoux in April 1968. Her novels of this period include The Tremor of Forgery (1969), which Graham Greene considered her finest work, and Ripley Under Ground (1970) which gained generally positive reviews. Her books, however, were selling poorly in America which her agent suggested was because they were "too subtle".[5]: 166–182 In 1970, Highsmith flew to the United States where she visited New York and her family in Fort Worth. She drew on her trip for her novel A Dog's Ransom (1972) which is set in Manhattan. In November 1970 she moved to the village of Moncourt, in the Moselle region of France. The novels she wrote there include Ripley's Game (1974), Edith's Diary (1977) and The Boy Who Followed Ripley (1980).[5]: 183–188, 194–206 In 1977, she saw Wim Wenders' The American Friend, a loose adaptation of Ripley's Game. She praised the film but was displeased with Dennis Hopper as Ripley.[10]: 360–362 The following year, she was elected chairman of the jury for the Berlin Film Festival.[9]: 584 In 1980 Highsmith underwent bypass surgery to correct uncontrolled bleeding and serious cardiovascular problems. Soon after, the French authorities fined her for taxation irregularities, prompting her to comment, "How appropriate, to be bleeding in two places." Disillusioned with France, she bought a house in Aurigeno, Switzerland and in 1982 moved there permanently.[5]: 216–218 Switzerland and final years Highsmith discussing murder on British television programme After Dark (June 1988)In 1981, Highsmith moved into her Swiss home and began writing a new novel, People who Knock on the Door (1983), about the influence of Christian fundamentalism in America. This, and her following novel, Found in the Street (1986), were partly based on a research trip to America in early 1981.[5]: 220–223 Her biographer Joan Schenkar states that by this time Highsmith had been living in Europe so long she "began to make errors of American fact and understanding in her novels." Highsmith described People who Knock on the Door as "a flat book, but popular in France, Germany and E[ast] Germany."[9]: 450–451, 463 In 1986, Highsmith had a successful operation for lung cancer. Shortly after, she commissioned a new home in Tegna, Switzerland. The home was in the brutalist style and her friends called it "the bunker." There she completed her last two novels, Ripley Under Water (1991) and Small g: A Summer Idyll (1995). In 1990 she was made an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters of France.[9]: 589 In 1993 her health deteriorated and she required the help of a home carer.[5]: 238–243 Highsmith died on February 4, 1995, at 74, from aplastic anemia and lung cancer at Carita Hospital in Locarno, Switzerland, near Tegna. She was cremated at the cemetery in Bellinzona; a memorial service was conducted in the Chiesa di Tegna in Tegna and her ashes were interred in its columbarium: 590 She left her estate, worth an estimated $3 million, and the promise of any future royalties, to the Yaddo colony, where she spent two months in 1948 writing the draft of Strangers on a Train.[10]: 139 [a] Highsmith bequeathed her literary estate to the Swiss Literary Archives at the Swiss National Library in Bern, Switzerland.[18] Her Swiss publisher, Diogenes Verlag, which had principal rights to her work, was appointed literary executor of the estate. Her last novel, Small g: a Summer Idyll, was rejected by Knopf (her most recent American publisher) several months before her death.[5]: 243 It was published posthumously in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury Publishing in March 1995,[20] and nine years later in the United States by W. W. Norton.[21] The novel sold 50,000 copies in France within six weeks of her death.[5]: 243 Highsmith's literary estate included eight thousand pages of handwritten notebooks and diaries

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