Patricia highsmith books in order!
Patricia Highsmith was born Mary Patricia Plangman, in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1921 to newlyweds Mary Coates and Jay B. Plangman (Wilson 21). The marriage between Highsmith's parents was, essentially, a failure.
When Mary discovered she was pregnant just four months after their marriage, she and Plangman almost immediately separated, and they were divorced just months after Highsmith's birth. During her pregnancy, Mary Coates tried to give herself an abortion by drinking turpentine.
Patricia highsmith cause of death
The abortion was unsuccessful, and became a sort of "family joke," which Coates told her daughter regularly ("It's funny you adore the smell of turpentine, Pat," Highsmith recalls her mother laughing) (Wilson 22).
Highsmith's mother was remarried to Stanley Highsmith in 1924.
Although Patricia adopted his last name, she "from their first meeting... disliked her stepfather" (26).
As Highsmith grew out of childhood, which she saw as "a little hell," she realize