Beautiful Shadow : A Life of Patricia Highsmith

'Every adult has secrets' says one of the characters in Patricia Highsmith's lesbian novel CAROL, first published under a pseudonym in 1952 as THE PRICE OF SALT. Indeed, Highsmith - author of STRANGERS ON A TRAIN and THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY - had more than her fair share. During her life, she felt uncomfortable about discussing the source of her fiction and refused to answer questions about her private life. Yet after her death in February 1995, Highsmith left behind a vast archive of personal documents - diaries, notebooks and letters - which detail the links between her life and her work. Drawing on these astonishingly intimate papers, together with material gleaned from her closest friends and lovers, Andrew Wilson has written the first biography of an author described by Graham Greene as the 'poet of apprehension' and by Gore Vidal as 'one of our greatest modernist writers'. In this compelling biography Andrew Wilson illuminates the dark corners of Highsmith's life, casts light on mysteries of the creative process and reveals the secrets that the writer chose to keep hidden until after her death.