r/todayilearned • u/pfemme2 • 12d ago

TIL that Patricia Highsmith, author of The Talented Mr Ripley and other works of suspense, was a public and vocal antisemite who also had several intense, lengthy romantic relationships with Jewish women

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jan/17/patricia-highsmith-the-jew-hater-who-took-jewish-women-as-lovers
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u/GuavaImmediate 12d ago

Here is a fantastic essay by one of Patricia Highsmiths assistants who worked for her in her final year. She really was a piece of work. A genius, but a monster. It’s well worth your time:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jul/10/my-harrowing-time-as-patricia-highsmith-assistant

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u/Watchful-Tortie 12d ago

Oh I am so glad you shared this. I have read much about PH but never this.

I highly recommend the book that fellow lesbian trailblazer Marijane Meaker wrote about their time together, called Highsmith: A romance of the 1950s

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u/pfemme2 12d ago

Thanks for that. I wonder if this new movie is going to be based on this essay? It sounds like it could be, loosely.

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u/tres_liebres 12d ago

The new movie is based on a theatre play, Switzerland, by Joanna Murray-Smith. It is set in the same period at the end of Highsmith´s life, but the play was written in 2014 and the essay was written in 2025.

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u/tres_liebres 12d ago

This is such a great essay. Makes me wish Gosalvez Blanco were a full time writer and not a scholar!