ARCHIVE: Letters, an interview with Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and related correspondence.
Archive of letters, an interview with Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and related correspondence
N.p.: N.p., Circa 1981-1982. An archive of two typed letters signed and one typed interview response from Patricia Highsmith to Eleanor Sullivan at Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.
Highsmith's interview response, a typed letter signed dated dated November 20, 1981, is quite lengthy, with fabulous content. The normally reclusive author addresses in some detail a wide array of topics, including her literary influences, Edgar Allan Poe, comparisons of Dreiser's "An American Tragedy" to "Strangers on a Train," her preference of ironing or woodwork to visiting Paris or New York and associated social engagements, her snail collection, Tom Ripley, the relative merits of short stories and novels, thoughts on "Purple Noon" (the 1962 French film adaptation of "The Talented Mr. Ripley"), favorite novels and short stories (her own and those of others), preferred climate and terrain for day-to-day living (with a comparative discussion of France and Mexico), the importance of understanding a character's emotions, coincidences and their function in "The Blunderer," sleep (naps and rising time in particular), painting and sketching, and a discussion of the influence of "Crime and Punishment" on the moral nature of her fiction.
An abbreviated version of the interview was published in the August 1983 issue of the magazine. A typed letter signed from Highsmith, dated November 20, 1981, accompanies Ms. Highsmith's typed response, and is on her Moncourt, France personal stationery. The letter notes that Highsmith found the questionnaire to be complex, that she enjoyed an interview with Clark Howard sent by Ms. Sullivan, that the publication of her new novel, "The Black House," is imminent, and that apart from EQMM, the "short story market in the USA is really pretty limited." The follow-up letter, dated March 26, 1982, inquires as to whether the interview was printed, and briefly mentions a request to reprint "Slowly, Slowly, in the Wind," which originally appeared in EQMM, in a horror anthology. A fascinating archive offering rare insight into the thoughts of a unique American author, one whose reclusiveness are well known.
Both letters Near Fine, with horizontal folds from having been mailed.
In a custom clamshell box.
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