Editing Patricia Highsmith (section)

=== Relationships ===
Schenkar calls Highsmith's mother, Mary: "the great love of Pat Highsmith's life{{Mdash}}and, certainly, her greatest hate."<ref name="Schenkar2009" />{{Rp|page=64}} In 1967 Highsmith wrote: "I adored my mother, and could see no wrong in her, until I was near 17."<ref name="Schenkar2009" />{{Rp|page=18}} Nevertheless,  Highsmith felt her mother had abandoned her at the age of 12, when she had left her in Fort Worth so she could attempt a reconciliation with Stanley Highsmith in New York. She later blamed her mother for her failed relationships, writing: "I never got over it. Thus I seek out women who will hurt me in a similar manner, and avoid the women who are{{Emdash}}good eggs."<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|page=48}} Highsmith also blamed her mother for her introverted personality, stating that when she was 14 her mother had asked her whether she was a lesbian in a way that made her feel "like a cripple on the street."<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|page=52}}

Relations between the two women were often difficult.'''<ref name="Schenkar2009" />'''{{Rp|page=18}} When Highsmith's mother stayed with her in England for six days in 1965 it ended in a physical altercation and Highsmith had to call her doctor, who sedated both women. Highsmith blamed her tense adult relationship with her mother on Mary's jealousy over her female friends and lovers.<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|pages=83, 262–264}} Her mother broke off relations with Highsmith by letter in 1974, and lived in a nursing home from 1975 until her death in 1991. During this time, Highsmith and her mother had no communication with each other.<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|pages=337, 343}}

Bradford argues that Highsmith's love life represented a combination of romantic fantasies and a desire for social advancement: "[T]hroughout her life, Highsmith looked for women whom she could worship."<ref name="Bradford2021" />{{Rp|pages=81–101}}Her partner Ellen Hill told her she was only in love with fantasy figures: "She [Hill] says, I fit the person to my wishes, find they don't fit, and proceed to break it off."<ref name="Schenkar2009" />{{Rp|page=291}} According to Bradford, until her middle age: "She only truly desired women who came from the kind of social, cultural and intellectual ranking to which she aspired. More significantly, she seemed particularly attracted to women who had been born into privilege."<ref name="Bradford2021" />{{Rp|pages=81–82}}

In 1941 Highsmith met Rosalind Constable, a 34-year-old British journalist and literary consultant. Wilson describes Constable as "blond," "elegant" and a "cultured sophisticate."'''<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|pages=81–82}}''' Highsmith fell in love with Constable but the relationship was not sexual. Constable promoted her career, giving her introductions to cultural figures and later recommending her to the Yaddo community.'''<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|pages=92–93, 137}}'''

In 1943 Highsmith had a brief affair with artist Allela Cornell who killed herself three years later over another failed relationship. Highsmith, nevertheless, felt guilty over her death and prominently displayed Cornell's oil portrait of her in all her homes. Cornell was the inspiration for the artist Derwatt in ''Ripley Under Ground''.<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|pages=101, 133, 263}}

Highsmith began a year-long affair with the rich socialite Virginia Kent Catherwood in June 1946. Catherwood was one of the models  for Carol Aird in ''The Price of Salt.''<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|pages=131–133}}<ref name="Schenkar2009" />{{Rp|pages=283–284}}{{efn|The character of Carol Aird and much of the plot of ''The Price of Salt'' was inspired by Highsmith's former lovers Kathryn Hamill Cohen and Philadelphia socialite Virginia Kent Catherwood,<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|pages=132, 161}}<ref name="Schenkar2009" />{{Rp|pages=282–289}} and her relationships with them.<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|pages=132, 161}}<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Jordan|first1=Louis|title=Carol's Happy Ending|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/11/carol_screenwriter_phyllis_nagy_friend_of_patricia_highsmith_worked_for.html|magazine=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]|publisher=The Slate Group|date=November 19, 2015|access-date=February 27, 2017}}</ref>  Catherwood lost [[Child custody|custody]] of her daughter in divorce proceedings that involved tape-recorded lesbian trysts in hotel rooms.<ref name=talbot />}}

During her stay at Yaddo in 1948, Highsmith met writer Marc Brandel, son of author [[J. D. Beresford]]. Even though she told him about her homosexuality, they soon entered into a relationship. In November Highsmith underwent six months of psychoanalysis in an effort "to regularize herself sexually"<ref name="Schenkar2009" />{{Rp|pages=261–262}}  so she could marry him. They became engaged in May 1949, just before her first trip to Europe. Their relationship ended in the fall of 1950.<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|pages=143–170}}

Highsmith and Brandel had other sexual partners during their relationship. In 1948 she started an intermittent relationship with  Ann Smith, a painter and designer. The relationship ended in 1950 but the two remained friends.<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|pages=144–147, 169}} While in Europe in 1949, Highsmith had an affair with psychoanalyst Kathryn Hamill Cohen, the wife of British publisher Dennis Cohen and founder of [[Cresset Press]], which later published ''Strangers on a Train''. Kathryn ended the affair by letter in April 1950.<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|pages=155–158, 166}}

To help pay for her therapy sessions, Highsmith had taken a sales job in December 1948 in the toy section of [[Bloomingdale's]] department store. One day she served an elegant blonde woman in a mink coat who left her delivery details. Her name was Kathleen Senn and the encounter inspired Highsmith to begin writing ''The Price of Salt''. She twice went to Senn's home to secretly observe her and, although they never met, Highsmith wrote that Senn "almost made me love her."<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|pages=1–2, 151–152}}

While in Munich In September 1951, Highsmith met the German sociologist Ellen Hill who, according to Schenkar, "had the longest, strongest influence on Pat's life (after mother Mary).".<ref name="Schenkar2009" />{{Rp|page=291}} They lived and traveled together in Europe and America until July 1953 when Hill attempted suicide after Highsmith threatened to end their relationship. They resumed their relationship in September 1954 and it lasted until December 1955. They established a difficult friendship after this, which endured until Highsmith broke with her in 1988.<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|pages=177–185, 191–203}}<ref name="Schenkar2009" />{{Rp|pages=572–574}}

In March 1956, Highsmith began a relationship with Doris Sanders, an advertising illustrator and copywriter. They lived together in Palisades, New York State, and traveled to Mexico where Highsmith set her novel ''A Game for the Living''. Highsmith left Sanders in December 1958 after initiating an affair with another woman.<ref name="Bradford2021" />{{Rp|pages=118–127}}

In the spring of 1959, Highsmith met writer Marijane Meaker. They began a relationship and when Highsmith returned from a publicity tour of Europe in 1960 they lived together near New Hope, Pennsylvania. The relationship was stormy and after six months Highsmith moved to another house in New Hope. When their relationship collapsed in 1961, Meaker included a character based on Highsmith in her novel ''Intimate Victims'' (1962). Highsmith did likewise in her novel ''The Cry of the Owl''.<ref name="Schenkar2009" />{{Rp|pages=360–368}}<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|pages=227–239}}

While in Europe in the summer of 1962, Highsmith met an Englishwoman who was married to a wealthy businessman and who had a child. Highsmith had an affair with the woman and fell in love.<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|pages=242–243}} Highsmith's Swiss editor, Anna von Planta, calls the anonymous Englishwoman the "love of her life".<ref name="von Planta2021" />{{Rp|pages=717}} Highsmith moved to England in 1963 to be closer to her lover and she eventually settled in Earl Soham, Suffolk in 1964. Her lover, whose husband knew of the affair, visited Highsmith on weekends and they had occasional holidays in Europe. When it became clear to Highsmith that the woman would not leave her husband for her, she became increasingly jealous of the time her lover spent with her family. Her lover, in turn, was jealous of the time Highsmith spent with former lovers including Ellen Hill. The affair ended in October 1966 and Highsmith called the breakup "the very worst time of my entire life."'''<ref name="Wilson2003" />'''{{Rp|pages=264–270}}

After Highsmith moved to France in 1967 she had several affairs with women who were 20 to 30 years younger. After her permanent move to Switzerland in 1982 she remained celibate for the rest of her life.<ref name="Bradford2021" />'''{{Rp|pages=174, 207–213, 225}}'''