W. W. Norton & Company is an independent American book publishing company based in New York City. It has been owned wholly by its employees since the early 1960s. The company is well known for its "Norton Anthologies" (particularly the Norton Anthology of English Literature) and its texts in the "Norton Critical Editions" series, the latter of which are frequently assigned in university literature courses.

History[link]

W. W. Norton & Company is the largest American book publishing company that has remained independent since its founding. It is the oldest and largest employee-owned publisher in the United States^[1] of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, college textbooks, cookbooks, art books, and professional books.^[2] The roots of the company date back to 1923.^[1] Since the 1950s Norton's college textbook line has expanded to include leading titles in economics, government, history, music, psychology, political science, sociology, and many other academic subjects. Several of its college textbooks, including The Norton Shakespeare, The Enjoyment of Music, A History of Western Music, and new and revised entries in the Norton Anthology and Norton Critical Edition series, have become best sellers in the academic fields. The Norton Professional Books division was founded in 1985 with a line of psychotherapy volumes, expanding to include neuroscience, education, architecture, and design books.

Norton acquired Liveright (the successor to the famous Boni & Liveright publishing house) in 1974 and Countryman Press (New England travel book publisher) in 1996.

Best Sellers[link]

Norton's best-selling trade books  include Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry; Jared Diamond’s Pulitzer Prize-winning best-seller Guns, Germs, and Steel; Pulitzer prize-winning historians Annette Gordon-Reed and Edmund S. Morgan's works; Patrick O'Brian’s critically acclaimed naval adventures; the works of National Book Award-winning fiction author Andrea Barrett; "Khruschev: The Man and His Era" by William Taubman; "Hitler: Hubris" and "Hitler: Nemesis" by Ian Kershaw; Liar's Poker, Moneyball, The Blind Side and The Big Short by Michael Lewis; Fareed Zakaria’s The Future of Freedom; Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm; Sam Harris’s The End of Faith; The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri; A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess; The Red Book by Carl Jung; The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb; and others in several subject fields. In the social sciences and science Norton has published best-selling books by such authors as economists Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz, paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, physicist Richard Feynman, and historians Peter Gay, Jonathan Spence, Eric Foner, Christopher Lasch, and George F. Kennan.

Distribution[link]

Norton currently distributes books for several independent publishers,^[3] including:

• Atlas & Co., publisher of contemporary and historical fiction, nonfiction, history, and biography.
• Blue Guides, travel and cultural guide books in English.
• Countryman Press, acquired by Norton in 1996, is a publisher of travel guides, New England regional interest and history, and cookbooks.
• Dalkey Archive Press, publisher of the Review of Contemporary Fiction and literature, memoirs, and criticism from around the globe.
• Fantagraphics Books, which publishes graphic fiction and comics.
• Foreign Affairs Books, publisher of political science and current affairs books.
• George Braziller Inc., publisher of art and photography books, poetry, literature, and history.
• Kales Press, publisher of nonfiction such as science, history, art, and memoir.
• New Directions Publishing, which focuses on publishing literature in translation, poetry, and recent classics.
• Odyssey Publications, Hong Kong-based publisher of cultural travel guides and history/photo books on unusual and exotic locations around the world.
• Ontario Review Books, publisher of review books.
• Peace Hill Press, publisher of secular home-schooling books and supplemental materials on history, reading, and religion.
• Pegasus Books, publishing nonfiction, history, health, biography, and mystery titles.
• Persea Books, publishing fiction, poetry, and memoirs from the United States and around the world.
• Pushcart Press, publisher of the annual Pushcart Prize literary anthologies and other books of literature and memoir.
• Quantuck Lane Press, publisher of "beautiful books of photography, art, and the eccentric, whether illustrated or not."^[4]
• Skyhorse Publishing, books on sports, fly fishing, nature, history, narrative nonfiction, military history, gambling, business, and humor titles.
• Thames & Hudson, publisher of illustrated books in art, architecture, anthropology, fashion, graphic design, photography, and travel.
• Verso Books, self-described "largest radical publisher in the English-language world".^[5]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Homepage
• Making the Cut - Chronicle of Higher Education

Norton Abrasives

Norton Abrasives logo
Type	Abrasives Manufacturing Company
Industry	Abrasives
Headquarters	Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
Products	Bonded Abrasives, Coated Abrasives, Non-Woven Abrasive Products, Superabrasives, Non-Abrasive Products
Parent	Saint-Gobain

Norton Abrasives of Worcester, Massachusetts is the world's largest manufacturer and supplier of abrasives for commercial applications, household, and automotive refinishing usage. In 1990 it was purchased by Saint-Gobain of France. Norton specializes in the manufacture of abrasive products for applications in the autobody, construction, welding/industry, and marine/composite markets as well as for contractors and DIY consumers.

Origins and History[link]

Norton Company was founded in 1885 by a group of ceramists and entrepreneurs from Worcester, Massachusetts. The group set out to manufacture the first mass-produced, precision-made grinding wheel to fulfill the burgeoning U.S. manufacturing industry's growing need for abrasives.^[1]

In 1886, employing the help of WPI student surveyors, the partners built a new factory on the outskirts of Worcester. The factory was not only important to the company for its innovation but also for its proximity to two major railways for shipping. Through the end of the 1890s, corporate decision-making proved extremely conservative until it was assured the company would succeed. Until that time, dividends were frequently forgone and many of the owners refused to draw a salary.^[2]

Also pivotal to Norton's early growth was a focus on marketing. The company introduced a series of pamphlets and related literature, which detailed the intricacies of each wheel and advised users on benefits for desired applications. By the mid 1890s, Norton stocked the largest inventory of grinding wheels in the world, subsequently beginning distribution in Chicago (1887), New York (1904), and soon after, across Europe.^[3]

One of the largest keys to the growth of the company was Norton's 1900 expansion into the machine tools industry. Through partnership with Charles H. Norton, the company founded the Norton Grinding Company division. The company specialized in the production of stationary grinding machines, an alternative to expensive workmen, which were capable of producing high volume, working with extremely heavy materials, and grinding with an unbelievable tolerance. Initially, with minimal product need, Norton's Grinding division saw little success, but the American industrial needs of World War I and the American automobile industry boom began a period of explosive growth. In 1914, Henry Ford's purchase of thirty-five Norton Grinders prompted Ford to remark that "the abrasive processes are basically responsible for our ability to produce cars to sell for less than a thousand dollars. Were it not for these processes these same cars would cost at least five thousand dollars, if indeed they could be made at all." With 95 percent of an automobile's moving parts requiring grinding, the automotive industry soon became Norton's biggest customer. With a resistance to grinding innovation, Norton gradually lost most of its industry market share by the mid-1950s. ^[3]

In 1931, Norton completed its first acquisition, when it purchased the Behr-Manning company of Watervliet, New York. This purchase added coated abrasives and sandpaper to Norton's line, which, going forward, would be two of Norton's more successful products. In the mid-1950s, with sales over $30 million, Behr-Manning was fully absorbed into Norton.

Since 2009, Norton has been a chief sponsor and abrasive supplier for both the United States Men's and Women's Olympic luge teams. Both teams competed under Norton sponsorship in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games.^[4]

Norton was also a leader in the design and building of grinding machines for mass production.^[5]

Products[link]

Norton's key areas of manufacture in the abrasives market are bonded abrasives, coated abrasives, non-woven abrasives, superabrasives, and specialty non-Abrasive products.

Environmental Record[link]

Since the mid 1980's, Norton has been an industry leader in abrasives sustainability and responsible manufacturing. In 1988, Norton instituted a committed industrial recycling plan for which it has received numerous awards and accolades. Through a combination of wash cleaning for repeated use and the ability to function without a chemical wash solution, many of Norton's products have been tailored to not only be a greener option but also provide greater longevity to the end user. Also key to the company's environmental commitment, Norton's retail abrasive products are packaged with 100% recycled materials containing 25% post consumer waste.^[6]

More recently as a Saint-Gobain subsidiary, Norton has made even greater environmental strides in conjunction with its parent company. In 2009, Saint-Gobain was recognized with an Energy Star Partner of the Year award by the U.S. EPA^[7] as well as a Global 100 Sustainable Company^[8] designation by the World Economic Forum. In day to day operations, all North American Saint-Gobain Abrasive plants have completed or are in the process of completing ISO 9000 quality certification and use FSC paper from well managed forests.^[6]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Rolt, L.T.C. (1965), A Short History of Machine Tools, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA: MIT Press, LCCN 6512439 . Co-edition published as Rolt, L.T.C. (1965), Tools for the Job: a Short History of Machine Tools, London: B. T. Batsford, LCCN 65080822 .
• Cheape, Charles (1985). Family Firm To Modern Multinational Norton Company a New England Enterprise, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA: Harvard University Press, LCCN 84010824.

External links[link]

• Website

42°18′22″N 71°48′12″W / 42.30611°N 71.80333°W / 42.30611; -71.80333Coordinates: 42°18′22″N 71°48′12″W / 42.30611°N 71.80333°W / 42.30611; -71.80333

The letters WW may refer to:

• "World Wide"
• Bmibaby IATA airline code
• Watson Wyatt Worldwide NYSE identifier
• Winchester and Western Railroad reporting mark
• Waterworks (disambiguation)
• Weather watch
• William H. Webster, a director of the FBI and CIA, referred to in the Kryptos sculpture as "WW"
• Weight Watchers
• White widow (disambiguation)
• an abbreviation for whitewater in the International Scale of River Difficulty
• Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States of America
• Woodwind instrument
• World war, a term for a military conflict affecting the majority of the world
• Writers Workshop in Calcutta, India
• "Wrong word" in proofreading
• the code for Wicklow, Ireland

In entertainment:

• Washington Wizards, an NBA basketball team
• Wayne's World
• The West Wing, a television series
• Wonder Woman
• World Wrestling Entertainment, an organisation whose logo appears as WW
• The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, a television series
• WW (album), a 2005 album by the Norwegian metal group Gehenna

In video games:

• Animal Crossing: Wild World
• The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
• Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
• WarioWare (series)
• Wario World

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

David Shrigley is a British visual artist.

Life and career[link]

Shrigley was born in Macclesfield on 17 September 1968,^[2] the younger of two children born to Rita (née Bowring) and Joseph Shrigley.^{[citation needed]} He moved with his parents and sister to Oadby, Leicestershire, when he was two years old.^[3][1] He did the Art and Design Foundation course at the Leicester Polytechnic in 1987,^[4][5] and then studied Environmental Art^[1] at the Glasgow School of Art from 1988 to 1991.^[2]

Although he works in various media, he is best known for his mordantly humorous cartoons released in softcover books or postcard packs.

Like the poet Ivor Cutler, Shrigley finds humour in flat depictions of the inconsequential, the unavailing and the bizarre – although he is far fonder of violent or otherwise disquieting subject matter. Shrigley's work has two of the characteristics often encountered in outsider art – an odd viewpoint, and (in some of his work) a deliberately limited technique. His freehand line is often weak, which jars with his frequent use of a ruler; his forms are often very crude; and annotations in his drawings are poorly executed and frequently contain crossings-out (In authentic outsider art, the artist has no choice but to produce work in his or her own way, even if that work is unconventional in content and inept in execution. In contrast, it is likely that Shrigley has chosen his style and range of subject matter for comic effect).

As well as authoring several books, he directed the video for Blur's "Good Song" and also for Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's "Agnes, Queen of Sorrow". In 2005 designed a London Underground leaflet cover. Since 2005, he has contributed a cartoon for The Guardian's Weekend magazine every Saturday. Other projects have included the album Worried Noodles (Tom Lab, 2007) where musicians interpret his writings as lyrics, including collaborations by David Byrne, Hot Chip, and Franz Ferdinand.

Shrigley co-directed an animate!-commissioned film with director Chris Shepherd called Who I Am And What I Want, based on Shrigley's book of the same title.^[6] Kevin Eldon voiced its main character, Pete.^[6] He also produced a series of drawings and T-shirt designs for the 2006 Triptych festival, a Scottish music festival lasting for three to four days in three cities. He has also designed twelve different covers for Deerhoof's 2007 record, Friend Opportunity.^[7]

Shrigley is a lifelong supporter of Nottingham Forest FC.^{[citation needed]}

Shrigley is represented by Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.^[8] He is represented in Paris by the Yvon Lambert Gallery.^[9]

Jason Mraz took the name of his album We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. from a work by Shrigley.^[10]

Music[link]

In 2006, Shrigley's first spoken-word album Shrigley Forced To Speak With Others was released by Azuli Records. In October 2007, Tomlab released Worried Noodles, a double-CD of artists including David Byrne, Islands, Liars, Grizzly Bear, Mount Eerie, R. Stevie Moore and Final Fantasy putting Shrigley's 2005 book of the same name to music. Moore went on to record an entire album of new songs set to Shrigley's Worried Noodles lyrics called Shrigley Field.

His spoken-word readings are used on the Late Night Tales series of recordings, with a track from Shrigley closing each album.

Solo exhibitions[link]

2012

• Hayward Gallery, London

2010

• Museum M, Leuven, Belgium

2009

• Kunsthalle Mainz, Mainz

2008

• Museum Ludwig, Cologne
• BQ, Cologne
• Anton Kern Gallery, NYC
• Baltic, Gateshead, England
• CASM, Barcelona

2007

• CAB, Burgos, Spain
• Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen
• Malmö Konsthall, Malmo, Sweden
• Stephen Friedman, London

2006

• Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris
• DCA, Dundee

2005

• BQ Galerie, Cologne
• Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen
• Anton Kern Gallery, New York

2004

• Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris
• Stephen Friedman, London
• Francesca Pia, Bern

2003

• Galerie Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen
• BQ Galerie, Cologne
• Kunsthaus, Zurich

2002

• Anton Kern Gallery, New York
• Domaine de Kerguehennec, France*
• Camden Arts Centre, London
• UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

2001

• Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris
• CCS Museum, Bard College, New York*
• Stephen Friedman Gallery, London

2000

• Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen

1999

• Francesca Pia, Bern
• Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris
• Stephen Friedman Gallery, London

1998

• Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen
• Bloom Gallery, Amsterdam
• Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris

1997

• Hermetic Gallery, Milwaukee
• CCA, Glasgow
• Francesca Pia, Bern
• Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
• Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen
• Photographers’ Gallery, London

1996

• Catalyst Arts, Belfast

1995

• Transmission Gallery, Glasgow

Publications[link]

2011

• What The Hell Are You Doing?: The Essential David Shrigley, W. W. Norton & Company (forthcoming)

2009

• Red Book, Redstone Press

2008

• Hand, BQ, Cologne
• Grip, Redstone Press (new edition)

2007

• Ants Have Sex In Your Beer, Redstone Press/Chronicle

2006

• This Is A Paper Trinket For You To Wear, Bywater Bros. Editions, Toronto
• Worried Noodles (The Empty Sleeve), Tomlab, Cologne

2005

• Photographs With Text, BQ, Cologne
• The Book of Shrigley, Redsone Press/ Chronicle Books

2004

• Blocked Path, Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen.
• Let’s Wrestle, Redstone Press, London.
• Rules, Redstone Press, London (book of postcards).
• Kill Your Pets, Redstone Press, London.
• Kill Your Pets, Revolver, Frankfurt.
• Joy, Chronicle Books, San Francisco.

2003

• Yellow Bird With Worm, Kunsthaus Zurich.
• Who I Am And What I Want, Redstone Press, London.
• Leotard, BQ, Cologne.
• Joy, Redstone Press, London (book of postcards).
• Evil Thoughts, Chronicle Books, San Francisco (book of postcards).

2002

• Human Achievement, Redstone Press, London.
• Evil Thoughts, Redstone Press, London (book of postcards).

2001

• Do Not Bend, Redstone Press, London.

2000

• Grip, Pocketbooks, Edinburgh.
• Hard Work, Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen.

1999

• The Beast is Near, Redstone Press, London.
• Fel, Rudins, Sweden (Swedish translation of Err).

1998

• Why We Got The Sack From The Museum, Redstone Press, London.
• To Make Meringue You Must Beat The Egg Whites Until They Look Like This, Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen.
• Centre Parting, The Little Cockroach Press, Toronto.
• Blank Page and Other Pages, The Modern Institute, Glasgow.

1996

• Drawings Done Whilst On Phone To Idiot, The Armpit Press. Glasgow.
• Err, Bookworks, London.
• Let Not These Shadows Fall Upon Thee, Tramway, Glasgow.

1995

• Enquire Within, Armpit Press, Glasgow.

1994

• Blanket Of Filth, The Armpit Press, Glasgow.

1992

• Merry Eczema, Black Rose, Glasgow.

1991

• Slug Trails, Black Rose, Glasgow.

Contributions[link]

2008 Life on Mars, the 2008 Carnegie International [1]

References[link]

External links[link]

• http://www.davidshrigley.com/
• Mudum
• ISBN 0-8118-5530-9 Who I Am And What I Want
• David Shrigley at Schäfer Grafisk Værksted
• Time Out interview

Patricia Highsmith
File:Pathigh.jpg Publicity photo from 1966
Born	Mary Patricia Plangman (1921-01-19)January 19, 1921 Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
Died	February 4, 1995(1995-02-04) (aged 74) Locarno, Switzerland
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	American
Period	1950 onward
Genres	suspense, psychological thriller, crime fiction
Literary movement	modernist literature
Notable work(s)	Strangers on a Train, The Ripliad
Influences Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostoevsky
Signature
www.wwnorton.com/highsmith

Patricia Highsmith (January 19, 1921 – February 4, 1995) was an American novelist and short-story writer most widely known for her psychological thrillers, which led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, has been adapted for stage and screen numerous times, notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. In addition to her acclaimed series about murderer Tom Ripley, she wrote many short stories, often macabre, satirical or tinged with black humor. Although she wrote specifically in the genre of crime fiction, her books have been lauded by various writers and critics as being artistic and thoughtful enough to rival mainstream literature. Michael Dirda observed, "Europeans honored her as a psychological novelist, part of an existentialist tradition represented by her own favorite writers, in particular Dostoevsky, Conrad, Kafka, Gide, and Camus."^[1]

Early life[link]

Highsmith was born Mary Patricia Plangman in Fort Worth, Texas, the only child of artists Jay Bernard Plangman (1889–1975) and his wife, the former Mary Coates (September 13, 1895 – March 12, 1991); the couple divorced ten days before their daughter's birth.^[2] She was born in her maternal grandmother's boarding house. In 1927, Highsmith, her mother and her adoptive stepfather, artist Stanley Highsmith (whom her mother had married in 1924), moved to New York City.^[2] When she was 12 years old, she was taken to Fort Worth and lived with her grandmother for a year. She called this the "saddest year" of her life and felt abandoned by her mother. She returned to New York to continue living with her mother and stepfather, primarily in Manhattan, but she also lived in Astoria, Queens. Pat Highsmith had an intense, complicated relationship with her mother and largely resented her stepfather. According to Highsmith, her mother once told her that she had tried to abort her by drinking turpentine, although a biography of Highsmith indicates Jay Plangman tried to persuade his wife to have an abortion, but she refused.^[3] Highsmith never resolved this love–hate relationship, which haunted her for the rest of her life, and which she fictionalized in her short story "The Terrapin", about a young boy who stabs his mother to death. Highsmith's mother predeceased her by only four years, dying at the age of 95.

Highsmith's grandmother taught her to read at an early age, and Highsmith made good use of her grandmother's extensive library. At the age of eight, she discovered Karl Menninger's The Human Mind and was fascinated by the case studies of patients afflicted with mental disorders such as pyromania and schizophrenia.

Comic books[link]

In 1942, Highsmith graduated from Barnard College, where she had studied English composition, playwriting and the short story. Living in New York City and Mexico between 1942 and 1948, she wrote for comic book publishers. Answering an ad for "reporter/rewrite", she arrived at the office of comic book publisher Ned Pines and landed a job working in a bullpen with four artists and three other writers. Initially scripting two comic book stories a day for $55-a-week paychecks, she soon realized she could make more money by writing freelance for comics, a situation which enabled her to find time to work on her own short stories and also live for a period in Mexico. The comic book scriptwriter job was the only long-term job she ever held.^[2]

With Nedor/Standard/Pines (1942–43), she wrote Sgt. Bill King stories and contributed to Black Terror. For Real Fact, Real Heroes and True Comics, she wrote comic book profiles of Einstein, Galileo, Barney Ross, Edward Rickenbacker, Oliver Cromwell, Sir Isaac Newton, David Livingstone and others. In 1943–45, she wrote for Fawcett Publications, scripting for such Fawcett Comics characters as the Golden Arrow, Spy Smasher, Captain Midnight, Crisco and Jasper. She wrote for Western Comics in 1945–47.

When she wrote The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955), one of the title character's first scam victims is comic book artist Frederick Reddington, a parting gesture directed at the earlier career she had abandoned: "Tom had a hunch about Reddington. He was a comic-book artist. He probably didn't know whether he was coming or going."^[4]

Novels and adaptations[link]

Highsmith's first novel was Strangers on a Train, which emerged in 1950, and which contained the violence that became her trademark.^[5] At Truman Capote's suggestion, she rewrote the novel at the Yaddo writer's colony in Saratoga Springs, New York.^[6] The book proved modestly successful when it was published in 1950. However, Hitchcock's 1951 film adaptation of the novel propelled Highsmith's career and reputation. Soon she became known as a writer of ironic, disturbing psychological mysteries highlighted by stark, startling prose.

Highsmith's second novel, The Price of Salt, was published under the pseudonym Claire Morgan. It garnered wide attention as a lesbian novel because of its rare happy ending.^[5] She did not publicly associate herself with this book until late in her life, probably because she had extensively mined her personal life for the book's content.^[2]

As her other novels were issued, moviemakers adapted them for screenplays: The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955), Ripley's Game (1974) and Edith's Diary (1977) all became films.

She was a lifelong diarist, and developed her writing style as a child, writing entries in which she fantasized that her neighbors had psychological problems and murderous personalities behind their façades of normality, a theme she would explore extensively in her novels.

Major themes in her novels[link]

Highsmith included homosexual undertones in many of her novels and addressed the theme directly in The Price of Salt and the posthumously published Small g: a Summer Idyll. The former novel is known for its happy ending, the first of its kind in lesbian fiction. Published in 1952 under the pseudonym Claire Morgan, it sold almost a million copies. The inspiration for the book's main character, Carol, was a woman Highsmith saw in Bloomingdale's department store, where she worked at the time. Highsmith acquired her address from the credit card details, and on two occasions after the book was written (in June 1950 and January 1951) spied on the woman without the latter's knowledge.

The protagonists in many of Highsmith's novels are either morally compromised by circumstance or actively flouting the law. Many of her antiheroes, often emotionally unstable young men, commit murder in fits of passion, or simply to extricate themselves from a bad situation. They are just as likely to escape justice as to receive it. The works of Franz Kafka and Fyodor Dostoevsky played a significant part in her own novels.

Her recurring character Tom Ripley—an amoral, sexually ambiguous con artist and occasional murderer—was featured in a total of five novels, popularly known as the Ripliad, written between 1955 and 1991. He was introduced in The Talented Mr. Ripley.^[7] After a 9 January 1956 TV adaptation on Studio One, it was filmed by René Clément as Plein Soleil (1960, aka Purple Noon and Blazing Sun) with Alain Delon, whom Highsmith praised as the ideal Ripley. The novel was adapted under its original title in the 1999 film directed by Anthony Minghella, starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and Cate Blanchett.

A later Ripley novel, Ripley's Game, was filmed by Wim Wenders as The American Friend (1977). Under its original title, it was filmed again in 2002, directed by Liliana Cavani with John Malkovich in the title role. Ripley Under Ground (2005), starring Barry Pepper as Ripley, was shown at the 2005 AFI Film Festival but has not had a general release.

In 2009, BBC Radio 4 adapted all five Ripley books with Ian Hart as Ripley.

Personal life[link]

According to her biography, Beautiful Shadow, Highsmith's personal life was a troubled one; she was an alcoholic who never had a relationship that lasted for more than a few years, and she was seen by some of her contemporaries and acquaintances as misanthropic and cruel. She famously preferred the company of animals to that of people and once said, "My imagination functions much better when I don't have to speak to people."

"She was a mean, hard, cruel, unlovable, unloving person", said acquaintance Otto Penzler. "I could never penetrate how any human being could be that relentlessly ugly."^[8]

Other friends and acquaintances were less caustic in their criticism, however; Gary Fisketjon, who published her later novels through Knopf, said that "she was rough, very difficult... but she was also plainspoken, dryly funny, and great fun to be around."^[8]

Highsmith had relationships with women and men, but never married or had children. In 1943, she had an affair with the artist Allela Cornell (who committed suicide in 1946 by drinking nitric acid^[9]) and in 1949, she became close to novelist Marc Brandel. Between 1959 and 1961 she had a relationship with Marijane Meaker, who wrote under the pseudonyms of Vin Packer and Ann Aldrich, but later wrote young adult fiction with the name M.E. Kerr. Meaker wrote of their affair in her memoir, Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950s.

In the late 1980s, after 27 years of separation, Highsmith began sharing correspondence with Meaker again, and one day she showed up on her doorstep, slightly drunk and ranting bitterly. Meaker once recalled in an interview the horror she felt upon noticing the changes in Highsmith's personality by that point.^[10]

"Highsmith was never comfortable with blacks, and she was outspokenly anti-semitic—so much so that when she was living in Switzerland in the 1980s, she invented nearly 40 aliases, identities she used in writing to various government bodies and newspapers, deploring the state of Israel and the 'influence' of the Jews".^[11] Nevertheless, some of her best friends were Jewish, such as authors Arthur Koestler and Saul Bellow. She was accused of misogyny because of her satirical collection of short stories Little Tales of Misogyny.

Highsmith loved woodworking tools and made several pieces of furniture. She kept pet snails; she worked without stopping. In later life she became stooped, with an osteoporotic hump.^[2] Though her writing—22 novels and eight books of short stories—was highly acclaimed, especially outside of the United States, Highsmith preferred for her personal life to remain private. She had friendships and correspondences with several writers, and was also greatly inspired by art and the animal kingdom.

Highsmith believed in American democratic ideals and in the promise of US history, but she was also highly critical of the reality of the country's 20th century culture and foreign policy. Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes, her 1987 anthology of short stories, was notoriously anti-American, and she often cast her homeland in a deeply unflattering light. Beginning in 1963, she resided exclusively in Europe. In 1978, she was head of the jury at the 28th Berlin International Film Festival.^[12]

Death[link]

Highsmith died of aplastic anemia and cancer in Locarno, Switzerland, aged 74. She retained her United States citizenship, despite the tax penalties, of which she complained bitterly, from living for many years in France and Switzerland. She was cremated at the cemetery in Bellinzona, and a memorial service conducted at the Catholic Church in Tegna, Switzerland.^[3]

In gratitude to the place which helped inspire her writing career, she left her estate, worth an estimated $3 million, to the Yaddo colony.^[5] Her last novel, Small g: a Summer Idyll, was published posthumously a month later.

Bibliography[link]

Novels[link]

• Strangers on a Train (1950)
• The Price of Salt (as Claire Morgan) (1952), also published as Carol
• The Blunderer (1954)
• The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955)
• Deep Water (1957)
• A Game for the Living (1958)
• This Sweet Sickness (1960)
• The Cry of the Owl (1962)
• The Two Faces of January (1964)
• The Glass Cell (1964)
• A Suspension of Mercy (1965), also published as The Story-Teller
• Those Who Walk Away (1967)
• The Tremor of Forgery (1969)
• Ripley Under Ground (1970)
• A Dog's Ransom (1972)
• Ripley's Game (1974)
• Edith's Diary (1977)
• The Boy Who Followed Ripley (1980)
• People Who Knock on the Door (1983)
• Found in the Street (1987)
• Ripley Under Water (1991)
• Small g: a Summer Idyll (1995)

Short-story collections[link]

• Eleven (1970; also known as The Snail-Watcher and Other Stories)
• Little Tales of Misogyny (1974)
• The Animal Lover's Book of Beastly Murder (1975)
• Slowly, Slowly in the Wind (1979)
• The Black House (1981)
• Mermaids on the Golf Course (1985)
• Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes (1987)
• Nothing That Meets the Eye: The Uncollected Stories (2002; posthumously published)

Collected works[link]

• Patricia Highsmith: Selected Novels and Short Stories (W.W. Norton, 2010)

Miscellaneous[link]

• Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction (1966)
• Miranda the Panda Is on the Veranda (1958; children's book of verse and drawings, co-written with Doris Sanders)

Awards[link]

• 1946 : O. Henry Award for best publication of first story, for "The Heroine" in Harper's Bazaar
• 1951 : Edgar Award nominee for best first novel, for Strangers on a Train
• 1956 : Edgar Award nominee for best novel, for The Talented Mr. Ripley
• 1957 : Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, for The Talented Mr. Ripley
• 1963 : Edgar Award nominee for best short story, for "The Terrapin"
• 1964 : Dagger Award – Category Best Foreign Novel, for The Two Faces of January from the Crime Writers' Association of Great Britain
• 1975 : Grand Prix de l'Humour Noir for L'Amateur d'escargot
• 1990 : Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture

See also[link]

• 1950 in literature

References[link]

External links[link]

• Works by or about Patricia Highsmith in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Patricia Highsmith Papers at the Swiss Literary Archives
• BBC Four audio interviews with Highsmith
• This Woman Is Dangerous Michael Dirda on Highsmith and her work from The New York Review of Books
• Patricia Highsmith at the Internet Movie Database
• The Haunts of Miss Highsmith – New York Times – Books
• Hiding in Plain Sight – New York Times Sunday Review of "THE TALENTED MISS HIGHSMITH -The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith" By Joan Schenkar.
• 1987 RealAudio interview with Patricia Highsmith by Don Swaim (MP3 also available)