I've a number of Patricia Highsmith signed books I've been meaning to blog about for bloody ages – years in fact – but the demands of work and life have meant that my blogging activity has largely been restricted to whichever books I've written or edited myself. However, I'm hoping to make more time for Existential Ennui besides simply blogging about whichever project I'm working on – case in point being my post the other day on Patrick Gierth – and have every intention of getting to those signed Highsmiths soon (and adding them to my dedicated Patricia Highsmith page). First, though, I want to showcase something even more remarkable:
A note Highsmith wrote on 9 February, 1975, regarding her "third Tom Ripley" as she puts it – in other words, 1974's Ripley's Game. The third in Highsmith's five-book Ripliad, Ripley's Game is, as I've noted many, many times, my favourite novel, not just of hers but full stop. I've never managed to secure a signed edition – though I do own a 1974 US Knopf first with an owner inscription by James Bond/Ian Fleming biographer John Pearson – so when I saw this note offered for sale I knew I had to have it so I could pair it with my 1974 Heinemann first edition of Ripley's Game (the book which began my book-collecting odyssey).
Addressed from Highsmith's then-residence in the village of Moncourt, France, where she wrote both Ripley's Game and the next book in the Ripliad, 1980's The Boy Who Followed Ripley (a signed US edition of which I blogged about back in 2017), the note is penned in response to a missive from one Peter Ladkin. An inveterate letter writer judging by the number of other examples of his author letters offered for sale at the same time (he also corresponded with the philosopher and LSE Professor John Watkins), Mr. Ladkin had evidently written approvingly of Ripley's Game, eliciting the following response from Highsmith:
Dear Mr Ladkin,
Don't worry about sending me the cost of return postage. I thank you very much for your remarks about my work and am glad you enjoyed my third Tom Ripley.
Yours sincerely
Patricia Highsmith
As the mention of "return postage" suggests, Mr. Ladkin had also seemingly requested Highsmith's signature and an accompanying inscription, which she duly supplied on a separate piece of paper, presumably so it could be used as a bookplate:
So there we have it: two notes regarding Ripley's Game, written from the house where Patricia Highsmith wrote that novel. Quite the pair of pieces of Patriciaphernalia for a Highsmith/Ripley's Game obsessive like myself.
Dear Nick (if I may),
ReplyDeleteNot directly linked to the "Patriciaphernalia" - I just wanted to send you a sincere "Merci beaucoup!" from France, for having been a wonderful reading companion over 2025.
I have been retired since January, and one of my great pleasures has been an exhaustive re-reading of all Patricia Highsmith novels in one go, complete with the biographies of Andrew Wilson and Joan Schenkar (plus the nice novel by Jill Dawson), and all the many reviews and articles and obituaries I had carefully archived over the years promising to myself I would get back to them once I would have the time.
I had become a great admirer of Highsmith during my adolescence in Germany in the 1970s and I owned all her novels in the legendary yellow-and-black Diogenes paperback collection (which also included Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Ross MacDonald, Henry Slesar, Roald Dahl, and the odd German gem like Jakob Arjouni). During my 1980s studies in modern literature and linguistics I wrote a couple of term papers on Highsmith - alas, I was unable to convince my professors that she was not "just a crime author", but deserved to be recognised as a great American novelist.
In 1991 I moved to France, focused on building myself a professional career, ended up doing a PhD in sociology and had no time anymore for fiction, my reading time being entirely swallowed up by academic literature. I took note of Highsmith's death in 1995, but left the last Ripley and Small g unread in my shelf, safely stored away for retirement.
The big question this year was: would I be as fascinated by her novels as a half-century ago?
The short answer is yes. The experience was even more pleasant on a purely aesthetic level as I read most of them in English now and discovered quite a few details that had been lost in translation.
On a different note, revisiting the books was nothing short of a time travel into an epoch, settings, and lifestyles that had felt quite close in the 70s, but required an effort to reimagine in the 2020s. At the same time, the motivations, impulses, and triggers of the protagonists' behaviour provided the same voyeuristic and slightly unsettling delight as before.
After each novel, I dove into the secondary sources of my archives, but also searched on the Web for intelligent reviews or comments, and that's where "Existential Ennui" turned out to be a brilliant interlocutor.
Many thanks for enhancing my big 2025 "reread experiment" - your input was much appreciated!
Best wishes!
Albrecht Sonntag
Bouchemaine
France
You're very welcome, Albrecht! Your thoughtful comment has brought some brightness at a difficult time for me, so thank you
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