Nothing That Meets the Eye
Page 52
The editors were able to rely on documents in the Highsmith papers and archives, recently made extensively available, in the Swiss Literary Archives in Berne, for the Afterword and the following record of the publication history. The notebooks and diaries there, which amount to about 8,000 handwritten pages, were particularly useful.
The distinction between notebooks and diaries in Patricia Highsmith’s case is by no means absolute. Many diaries contain working notes, while the notebooks record not only ideas for books but also places, names, (encoded) meetings, ordinary daily routines, poems (by herself and others), notes on her reading, quotations, and thoughts about American and world politics. There are thirty-seven notebooks that the author kept between 1938 and 1992, nineteen from the period before 1950, the year of publication of her first novel, Strangers on a Train, and eighteen diaries (1941 to 1984), which contain only sporadic entries after 1954. Altogether, the diaries are far less important than the notebooks, for Highsmith worked these notebooks continually, while the diaries expanded for years without being drawn upon for new projects.
PART I: EARLY STORIES, 1938–1949
“The Mightiest Mornings.” 31 pp. TS (typescript), undated. Written (first as “The Mightiest Mountains”) between July 10, 1945, and February 15, 1946. Unpublished.
“Uncertain Treasure.” Written November–December 1942, first published in Home and Food (New York), August 1943, vol. 6, no. 21, pp. 15, 27, 32–34.
“Magic Casements.” 19 pp. TS, undated, written under the alternative titles “The Magic Casements” and “The Faery Lands Forlorn” between ca. December 1945 and the end of February 1946. Unpublished.
“Miss Juste and the Green Rompers.” Written in 1941, first appeared in Barnard Quarterly, vol. XVII, no. 4, Spring II, 1941, pp. 19–26.
“Where the Door Is Always Open and the Welcome Mat Is Out.” Two versions, both undated, both unpublished; the first version of 22 TS pp., second, shortened version (titled “The Welcome Mat”) of 17 TS pp., written between February 1945 and April 1947, revised in 1949. This edition is based on the first, longer version.
“In the Plaza.” 28 pp. TS, undated, written in Taxco, Mexico, in April 1948. Unpublished.
“The Hollow Oracle” (untitled by PH, title provided by editor from PH text). 14 pp. TS, undated. Presumably written between September and November 1942. Unpublished.
“The Great Cardhouse.” 19 pp. TS, written August/September 1949. First published in Story, vol. 36, issue 3, no. 140, May–June 1963, pp. 32–48.
“The Car.” Two undated TS versions, both 22 pp., one (presumably later) version with corrections of Spanish phrases. A first draft was written in March 1945, which PH revised in December 1962. This edition is based on the corrected (presumably later) version. Unpublished.
“The Still Point of the Turning World.” 20 pp. TS, undated, written between August and November 1947, first published as “The Envious One” in Today’s Woman, March 1949.
“The Pianos of the Steinachs.” 41 pp. TS, dated by PH 1947, written between ca. December 1946 and May 1947. Unpublished.
“A Mighty Nice Man.” Written in ca. 1940, first published in Barnard Quarterly, vol. XV, no. 3, Spring 1940, pp. 34–40.
“Quiet Night.” Two versions; the first version presumably written in New York in 1938 or 1939, first published in Barnard Quarterly, Fall 1939, pp. 5–10; twenty-seven years later, in February 1966, PH revised and lengthened the story, which was published as “The Cries of Love” in Woman’s Home Journal, January 1968, and in book form in PH, Eleven, London: Heinemann 1970 (U.S. edition titled The Snail-Watcher and Other Stories, published by Doubleday, 1970).
“Doorbell for Louisa.” 26 pp. TS, with a handwritten 1973 note by PH, “Cosmopolitan 1948?” while her diary tells of having sold the story to Woman’s Home Companion on September 3, 1946. Unpublished.
PART II: MIDDLE AND LATER STORIES, 1952–1982
“A Bird in Hand.” 19 pp. TS, undated. Unpublished.
“Music to Die By.” 15 pp. TS, written in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, between December 1962 and August 1963. First published as “The Hate Murders” in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, May 1965, pp. 11–22; first published in book form (in French translation) as “Une logique folle” in PH, Le jardin des disparus, Paris: Calmann-Lévy 1982. (New title applied by editor from PH text.)
“Man’s Best Friend.” 16 pp. TS, undated, written between July 3 and 9, 1952. Unpublished.
“Born Failure.” 18 pp. TS, undated. Written between May 22 and 29, 1953. Unpublished.
“A Dangerous Hobby.” First story outline in June 1959. First published as “The Thrill Seeker” in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, August 1960, pp. 10–21; handwritten note by PH on magazine copy, “A Dangerous Hobby.” First published in book form (in French translation) as “L’amateur de frissons” in Les cadavres exquis, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1989 (as “The Thrill Seeker” in PH, Chillers, London: Penguin, 1990).
“The Returnees.” 24 pp. TS, undated, written in Munich and Paris between September and October 1952. Unpublished.
“Nothing That Meets the Eye.” 22 pp. TS, undated. Presumably written in April 1964. Unpublished.
“Two Disagreeable Pigeons.” 9 pp. TS, undated, first story outline December 21, 1973. Unpublished.
“Variations on a Game.” 19 pp. TS, undated. First story outline February 1958. First published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, vol. 18, February 1973, pp. 22–35. First published in book form (in French translation) in Photo à l’arrivée, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1995.
“A Girl like Phyl.” 29 pp. TS, undated. First published (in German translation) as “Ein Mädchen wis Phyl” in (German) Playboy, vol. 8, 1980; first published in book form (in French translation) as “Le portrait de sa mère” in PH, Le jardin des disparus, Paris: Calmann-Lévy 1982.
“It’s a Deal.” 14 pp. TS, undated. First story outline in October 1963, first published (in German translation) as “Quitt” in Tintenfass 24, Zurich: Diogenes, 2000.
“Things Had Gone Badly.” 17 pp. TS, undated. First story outline in June 1978. First published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, March 10, 1980, pp. 64–78. First published in book form as “Un meurtre” in PH, Le jardin des disparus, Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1982.
“The Trouble with Mrs. Blynn, the Trouble with the World.” 11 pp. TS, undated. Probably written in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, in 1963/1964. First published in The New Yorker, May 27, 2002.
“The Second Cigarette.” 19 pp. TS, undated, written (under alternative titles “Twin Story” and “Poynters”) between April 1976 and January 1978. First published (in French translation) as “La deuxième cigarette” in On ne peut compter sur personne, Paris: Calmann-Lévy 1996.
Anna von Planta, an editor at Diogenes Verlag in Zürich, was Patricia Highsmith’s primary editor from 1985 until her death in 1995. She continues her work with the literary estate.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1921, Patricia Highsmith spent much of her adult life in Switzerland and France. She was educated at Barnard College, where she studied English, Latin, and Greek. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, published initially in 1950, proved to be a major commercial success and was filmed by Alfred Hitchcock. Despite this early recognition, Highsmith was unappreciated in the United States for the entire length of her career.
Writing under the pseudonym of Claire Morgan, she then published The Price of Salt in 1952, which had been turned down by her previous American publisher because of its frank exploration of homosexual themes. Her most popular literary creation was Tom Ripley, the dapper sociopath who first debuted in her 1955 novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley. She followed with four other Ripley novels. Posthumously made into a major motion picture, The Talented Mr. Ripley has helped bring about a renewed appreciation of Highsmith’s work in the United States, as has the po
sthumous publication of The Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmith, which received widespread acclaim when it was published by W. W. Norton & Company in 2001.
The author of more than twenty books, Highsmith has won the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Edgar Allan Poe Award, Le Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, and the Award of the Crime Writers’ Association of Great Britain. She died in Switzerland on February 4, 1995, and her literary archives are maintained in Berne.
Further praise for Patricia Highsmith
and Nothing That Meets the Eye
“With a hard, keen eye, Highsmith crafts beautifully warped creatures and dares us to step inside their minds.”
—Frank Sennett, Booklist
“Readers will revel in this fabulous survey of mostly unpublished work.”
—Pages
“This is a riveting collection of short stories and should not be missed.”
—Teresa DeCrescenzo, Lesbian News
“Highsmith writes the verbal equivalent of a drug—easy to consume, darkly euphoric, totally addictive. . . . Highsmith belongs in the moody company of Dostoevsky or Angela Carter.”
—Time Out
“Highsmith’s writing is wicked . . . it puts a spell on you, after which you feel altered, even tainted. . . . A great American writer is back to stay.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“In every story, Highsmith demonstrates her inimitable talent for making even the coldest characters galvanizing.”
—Publishers Weekly
“No one has created psychological suspense more densely and deliciously satisfying.”
—Vogue
“Read it at your own risk, knowing that this is not everyone’s cup of poisoned tea.”
—New York Times
“These tales will make you shiver and smile.”
—C.M., O Magazine
“Highsmith’s gift as a suspense novelist is to show how this secret desire can bridge the normal and abnormal. . . . She seduces us with whisky-smooth surfaces only to lead us blindly into darker terrain.”
—Commercial Appeal
“Patricia Highsmith’s novels are peerlessly disturbing . . . bad dreams that keep us thrashing for the rest of the night.”
—The New Yorker
“Highsmith had a profound understanding of the human psyche.”
—Laura Cassidy, Seattle Weekly
“Though Highsmith would no doubt disclaim any kinship with Jonathan Swift or Evelyn Waugh, the best of [her work] is in the same tradition. . . . It is Highsmith’s dark and sometimes savage humor, and the intelligence that informs her precise and hard-edged prose, which puts one in mind of those authors.”
—Newsday
“For eliciting the menace that lurks in familiar surroundings, there’s no one like Patricia Highsmith.”
—Time
“A writer who has created a world of her own—a world claustrophobic and irrational which we enter each time with a sense of personal danger . . . Patricia Highsmith is the poet of apprehension.”
—Graham Greene
“Patricia Highsmith is often called a mystery or crime writer, which is a bit like calling Picasso a draftsman.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
“[Highsmith] has an uncanny feeling for the rhythms of terror.”
—Times Literary Supplement
“To call Patricia Highsmith a thriller writer is true but not the whole truth: her books have stylistic texture, psychological depth, mesmeric readability.”
—The Sunday Times (London)
Frontispiece: Patricia Highsmith, circa 1942. Courtesy Swiss Literary Archive, Berne.
Copyright © 2002 by Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich
Afterword copyright © 2002 by Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich
English translation of Afterword copyright © 2002 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
All rights reserved
First published as a Norton paperback 2003
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write
to Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110
Book design by Blue Shoe Studio
Production manager: Julia Druskin
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Highsmith, Patricia, 1921–
Nothing that meets the eye : the uncollected stories of Patricia Highsmith.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-393-05187-0
I. Title.
PS3558.I366 N67 2002 2002070121
ISBN 0-393-32500-8 pbk.
eISBN: 978-0-393-34566-7
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
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