Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith - Hardcover

Wilson, Andrew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1582341982 ISBN 13: 9781582341989

Publisher: Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA, 2003

Synopsis

A critical biography of acclaimed suspense author Patricia Highsmith draws on a vast archive of diaries, notebooks, and letters, as well as interviews with friends, colleagues, and lovers, to offer an incisive portrait of the lesbian author and her remarkable literary works. 20,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

‘A fascinating, beautifully balanced and meticulously researched biography’ -- Sunday Telegraph

‘An exemplary biography ... Wilson has fashioned a biography that does complete justice to her uneasy spirit’ -- Sunday Times

‘Excellent and outstandingly readable ... Brilliant and compelling’ -- Daily Mail

‘Wilson has chosen a wonderful subject and written an excellent book ... Brilliant’ -- Scotland on Sunday

‘Wilson has delved with extraordinary diligence, and everything he has unearthed is remarkable’ -- Mail on Sunday

From the Back Cover:

Throughout her life she would find herself drawn to a number of women whom she could use as muses, women who have here talked about Highsmith for the first time. Yet the fantasy love affair – a relationship conducted within the confines of the imagination – was always more alluring than the reality and as a result the only lasting happiness Highsmith experienced came through her work.

Drawing on Highsmith’s voluminous personal papers, and the testimonies of her closest friends, Andrew Wilson has written the first biography of the author described by Graham Greene as ‘the poet of apprehension’ and by Gore Vidal as ‘one of our greatest modernist writers’. In this biography he illuminates the dark corners of Highsmith’s life, casts light on the mysteries of the creative process and reveals the secrets that the writer chose to keep hidden until after her death.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1582341982
• ISBN 13: 9781582341989
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304