Childhood: Highsmith was born to Mary and Jay Bernard Plangham. Her mother, a commercial artist, divorced Patricia's father just before she was born, and was remarried three years later to Stanley Highsmith. Patricia's real parentage was to be kept secret from her until she was ten years old. Two years later, she finally met her biological father.
Her relationships with all three parental figures were strained and difficult, having been repeatedly told by her mother that she had tried abort Patricia by drinking turpentine, not knowing her real father, and not liking her stepfather in the slightest.
Highsmith first began to develop her writing skills in her diary, which she kept adding to for her entire life. As a child, she would write entries concerning her neighbours, imagining that underneath the charming facades they showed everyone, they were in fact psychopathic and murderous, and had severe psychological issues. These were the themes that were to repeat themselves throughout her literary life.
She was educated at Barnard College, and graduated with English, Latin and Greek in 1942.

Work: During the early days of her writing career, she lived in New York and worked in Bloomingdales to support herself. She once served a woman who became the inspiration for the main characters in her most controversial 'The Price of Salt'. Getting the woman's address from her credit card details, Highsmith began stalking her for some months, displaying the same obsessive behaviour depicted in the book. Having first published the very popular 'Strangers on a Train' in 1950 under her own name, 'The Price of Salt' was at first rejected by her publisher, presumably for its homosexual, lesbian content. More uncommonly for such subject matter at this time, the book contained a happy ending. Many believe it to be the first ever American lesbian novel to end positively.
The novel was eventually published under the pseudonym Claire Morgan, in 1953, and sold just under a million copies. Highsmith was later given the full recognition she deserved for the work, when it was re-published in her own name in 1984.
After her humble beginnings in Texas and New York, Highsmith traveled to Europe from 1949 onwards, and moved around between England, France, Switzerland and Italy. This nomadic lifestyle seemed to become the inspiration for most of her later work, including her most famous anti-hero, Tom Ripley.
The main protagonist in her most popular series of books began life in 1955, with the publication of 'The Talented Mr. Ripley', a story about a debonair, homosexual, psychotic, habitual liar, who cheats and murders his way around Europe, adopting various identities and playing different personalities in order to escape retribution for his actions.
Ripley was the antithesis of many crime novel protagonists at this time, being morally and psychologically flawed. Highsmith turned the tables on crime writing by showing events from the point of view of the criminal, instead of the detective trying to solve the mystery, and even shows him getting away with his deeds.
There were to be five books featuring Tom Ripley, known to their fans as 'The Ripliad' - 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' (1955), 'Ripley Underground' (1970), 'Mr. Ripley's Game' (1974), 'The Boy Who Followed Ripley' (1980) and 'Ripley Under Water' (1991).
She had written over twenty novels and seven collections of short stories by the time of her death from Leukemia, at the age of 74. Her final novel, 'Small g, a Summer Idyll', was published posthumously.
Several of her novels were also adapted as screenplays for successful films, first with Alfred Hitchcock directing 'Strangers on a Train', in 1951. 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' was made into a film called 'Plein Soleil', starring Alain Delon (whom Highsmith thought was perfect for the role) in 1960, and again in 2000, under its original title, and directed by Anthony Minghella. 'Mr. Ripley's Game' was similarly interpreted twice - once in 1977, as 'The American Friend', and again in 2002, as 'Ripley's Game'.

Friends & Relationships: Highsmith had often been accused of being 'mean spirited', 'misanthropic and cruel', and even of being racist and misogynistic. However, those close to her have just as often said that she was deeply misunderstood, that she was shy and unhappy in life rather than genuinely unpleasant, and that much of her internal unhappiness outwardly made her unlikable to many people.
Her diary gives us the deepest insight into what she was really like - these lifelong records were made available to her biographer Andrew Wilson. They reveal that she was lesbian herself, having many female lovers. However none of these relationships lasted more than a few years.
She traveled nomadically for most of her adult life, but spent a period of time in Pennsylvania in the 1950s living with the novelist Ann Aldrich.

Greatest Achievements: Her mould-breaking portrayals of homosexual people in twentieth century literature, as well as several awards, including the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Edgar Allan Poe Award, Le Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, and the Award of the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain.

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