Patricia Highsmith

Patricia Highsmith was born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1921 and grew up in New York. She decided to become a writer at the age of sixteen, a time when she was publishing her high school magazine. Her first novel, "Strangers on a Train," was adapted into a film by Alfred Hitchcock, with a screenplay by Raymond Chandler, in 1950. Her central work is the Ripley series, a pentalogy, one of which was made into a film by Wim Wenders in 1977, starring Bruno Ganz. The third book, "The Talented Mr. Ripley," won the Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Other works include "Deep Water," "The Cry of the Owl," "Edith's Diary," and "Little Tales of Misogyny," among others. Highsmith, who was friends with Truman Capote, Eric Ambler, and others, has been honored with the most prestigious awards in crime literature. She passed away in 1995, having retreated to Switzerland.