In a cruel twist of irony, Texas-born Patricia Highsmith is only now, six years after her death, being recognized for her inestimable genius in her native land. With the savage humor of Evelyn Waugh and the macabre sensibility of Edgar Allan Poe, she brought a distinct twentieth-century acuity to her prolific body of noir fiction. Called "the poet of apprehension" by Graham Greene, Highsmith was unrivaled in capturing the ways in which our seemingly benign neighbors can become the psychopaths next door. Now, five of her classic short story collections are combined in a single volume, The selected stories of Patricia Highsmith, with a foreword by Graham Greene.
Patricia Highsmith (January 19, 1921 – February 4, 1995) was an American novelist and short story writer widely known for her psychological thrillers, including her series of five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley.
She wrote 22 novels and numerous short stories throughout her career spanning nearly five decades, and her work has led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her writing derived influence from existentialist literature, and questioned notions of identity and popular morality. She was dubbed "the poet of apprehension" by novelist Graham Greene.
Her first novel, *Strangers on a Train*, has been adapted for stage and screen, the best known being the Alfred Hitchcock film released in 1951. Her 1955 novel *The Talented Mr. Ripley* has been adapted for film. Writing under the pseudonym **Claire Morgan**, Highsmith published the first lesbian novel with a happy ending, *The Price of Salt*, in 1952, republished 38 years later as Carol under her own name and later adapted into a 2015 film.
**Source**: [Patricia Highsmith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Highsmith) on Wikipedia
