The Holiday Press

Press, 12 January 1987, Page 19

The Holiday Press

Hitchcock paid $7500 for classic thriller

By

DORENE INTERNICOLA

NZPA-Reuter New York In the deliciously chilling world of Patricia Highsmith’s fiction, evil triumphs over good and murder can be prompted by a mere fit of pique. Called by writer Graham Greene a “poet of apprehension,” Highsmith has turned out 24 books of psychological horror since director Alfred Hitchcock bought her first novel, “Strangers on a Train,” and turned it into the classic 1951 suspense film. In Europe, her work is published by the most respected houses and considered literature. In America, she is usually consigned to the “mystery” section. Although clearly fascinated by crime, evil and guilt, Miss Highsmith, aged 65, rails at the label “mystery writer.” "No, definitely not mystery,” the author- told Reuters during one of her rare visits to New York. “For one thing, I usually go along with the murderer.” Miss Highsmith sees herself essentially as a storyteller. “I like to think that I can think of an interesting plot,” she said. “I think ■ people, like to see things moving.” "Strangers on a Train” was written when she was 28. Hitchcock paid her a flat fee of SUS7SOO, no royalties. “It was a lot more money in those days,” she said. “Hitchcock didn’t ask me to go to Hollywood, and I doubt I would have gone. I hated the idea of setting foot into that place because I’d heard about (F. Scott) Fitzgerald and such nice people cracking up. I still feel the same way.” Miss Highsmith is a sturdy woman with thick, grey hair and deep-set brow eyes. She cuts an enigmatic, guarded figure. She is at once shy and intimidating, evasive yet precise. Peering from under a heavy fringe and smoking French cigarettes, she would rather recite one of her plots than delve too deeply into the source of her wicked imagination. “I don’t search for inspiration. It just seems to come my way,” she said. Tom Ripley is Miss Highsmith’s most diabolical creation. The machinations of that charismatic psychopath fill four novels, from “The Talented Mr Ripley,” published in 1956, to “The Boy Who Followed Ripley” (1980). Ripley fans will delight to know Miss Highsmith hopes to do another. How did she hit upon such an attractive maniac, who. proceeds blithely from one murderous scheme to another largely undisturbed by pangs of; morality or decency? “I saw a man walking on the beach in Positana, Italy. I wondered why he was there. He appeared to be a young American, very thoughtful and unhappy. So, a couple of years later I created the first -Ripley book by thinking about such a person,” she said. She said she identified with Ripley’s "appreciation of luxury” — the most benign of his qualities. She described Ripley as “someone who, in the midst-

of disaster, will strike a match to two copulating flies, or trip an annoying child by sticking his foot out.” ‘‘l’ve been annoyed by children running up and down airplane aisles,” she ‘admits. “I thought of it. but I didn’t do it. Ripley is exceptional in that he feels no guilt.” , A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Miss Highsmith has lived abroad for the last 20 years. She conceded that this has not helped her American reputation, but she prefers it nonetheless. “I like the values in Europe,” she said. *Tve had the same publisher in London for 20 years. In America, a publisher is suddenly owned by Campbell’s Soup. It’s not the love of

books they’re for, it’s love of money, frankly.” Miss Highsmith lives in a tiny Swiss town near Locarno, on the Italian border. Alone except for two cats, she writes and sleeps in the same room. She tries to write every day. “I like Switzerland because it's quiet and tidy and dull,” she said. The author who delights in pulling the rug out from under her characters admits to being a warrior by nature and finds New York “interesting but dangerous.” “In Switzerland, if you lose your suitcase on a train you will get it back eventually,” she said. Miss Highsmith’s latest novel, “Found in the Streets,” starts with a wallet found — and returned — in

New York City, ft is not yet available in the United States, but is a best seller in Europe. She admires the writer Saul Bellow because “there’s a lot of paranoia there,” and has always relished the works of Henry James, Joseph Conrad and Herman Melville. Miss Highsmith is now finishing, another book of short stories. She usually works from a theme: in “An Animal Lover’s Guide to Beastly Murder,” pete take revenge on their owners, and “Little Tales of Misogyny” concerns the wicked ways of men. “With a short story, you can do it with a bit .more dash,” she said. The new collection will be called “Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes.”