She had friends who were Jewish, but in the 1980s she railed against Jews and the state of Israel in a series of letters to newspapers and elected officials - written under pseudonyms. Highsmith could be prickly, racist and overtly cruel. “The classic ‘alter ego’ of comics shows up in the divided psychologies of all Pat’s murdering criminal-heroes - Tom Ripley, who assumes the identity of the man he killed.” “Before she was born her mother tried to abort her by drinking turpentine,” Andrew Wilson writes in his 2003 biography, “Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith.” He adds that, “As a child, Highsmith had dreams of murdering her stepfather.” Blanchett as Carol in “Carol.” Weinstein Companyīorn in Texas, in 1921, the author “thought of herself as a classical novelist, but supported herself with a secret seven-year career as the only woman writing for superhero comics in the 1940s,” says Schenkar. The parent and child had a close but fraught relationship. Highsmith’s 1952 novel “ The Price of Salt,” the basis for the movie “Carol,” was originally published under the pseudonym “Claire Morgan” because her mother disapproved of Highsmith’s interest in women. “Her life so divided that she kept secrets from everyone.” “She loved women, but preferred men as company,” Joan Schenkar, who wrote the authorized biography “The Talented Miss Highsmith,” tells The Post. She carried on several affairs at once, with members of both sexes. Ripley, was a misanthrope with a vast trove of secrets. But their duplicity pales next to the complicated creator of the film’s source material.Īuthor Patricia Highsmith, best known for her series of novels about the sociopathic Mr.

The film “Carol” - out Friday and already meriting Oscar buzz - is about a lesbian couple forced to hide their romance in the 1950s. Highsmith’s 1962 novel “The Price of Salt,” which is the basis of “Carol.” Handout

Movie the price of salt