Patricia Highsmith’s handbag
May 5, 2016 at 11:48 pm | Posted in creativity, writers' habits, Writing | Leave a commentTags: Charles Dickens, Kafka, Patricia Highsmith, Peter Stanley, writers and walking, writers' habits
Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995), prolific author of crime novels plus the novel Carol, recently made into a film directed by Todd Haynes, was a prolific drinker and smoker as well. She smoked a packet of Gaulloises a day. Famously not very good with people, Highsmith had an intense connection with animals.
She loved cats. Snails made her feel tranquil.
‘She eventually housed three hundred snails in her garden in Suffolk, England, and once arrived at a London cocktail party carrying an enormous handbag that contained a head of lettuce and a hundred snails – companions for the evening, she said (p. 12).’
Such details of writers’ habits can be found in Mason Currey’s Daily Rituals: How Artists Work (Knopf, 2013), the book published from the author’s blog, Daily Routines.
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