Editing Patricia Highsmith (section)

== Apprentice writer ==
After graduating in 1942, Highsmith, despite endorsements from "highly placed professionals," applied without success for a job at publications such as ''[[Harper's Bazaar]]'', ''[[Vogue (magazine)|Vogue]]'', ''[[Mademoiselle (magazine)|Mademoiselle]]'', ''[[Good Housekeeping]]'', ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', ''[[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]]'', and ''[[The New Yorker]]''.<ref name="Schenkar2009" />{{Rp|page=130}} She eventually found work with FFF Publishers which provided copy for various Jewish publications. The job, which paid $20 per week, lasted only six months but gave her experience in researching stories.<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|pages=93–94}}

In December 1942 Highsmith found employment with comic book publisher [[Benjamin W. Sangor|Sangor]]–[[Standard Comics|Pines]] where she earned up to $50 per week. She wrote "Sergeant Bill King" stories, contributed to [[Black Terror]] and [[Fighting Yank]] comics, and wrote profiles such as [[Catherine the Great]], [[Barney Ross]], and [[Eddie Rickenbacker|Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker]] for the "Real Life Comics" series. After a year, she realized she could make more money and have more flexibility for travel and serious writing by working [[freelance]] for comics and she did so until 1949. From 1943 to 1946, under editor [[Vincent Fago]] at [[Timely Comics]], she contributed to its ''[[U.S.A. Comics]]'' wartime series, writing scenarios for characters such as [[All Select Comics|"Jap Buster Johnson"]] and [[Destroyer (Marvel Comics)|The Destroyer]]. For [[Fawcett Publications]] she scripted characters including "Crisco and Jasper." She also wrote for ''[[True Comics]]'', ''[[Captain Midnight#Comic book|Captain Midnight]]'' and ''[[Western Comics]]''. Working for comics was the only long-term job Highsmith ever held.<ref name="Schenkar2009" />{{Rp|pages=27–28, 151–155, 167–175}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schenkar |first1=Joan |date=December 2009 |title=Patricia Highsmith & The Golden Age Of American Comics |url=https://issuu.com/twomorrows/docs/alterego90preview |journal=[[Alter Ego (magazine)|Alter Ego]] |publisher=[[TwoMorrows Publishing]] |volume=3 |issue=90 |pages=35–40}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Raskin |first1=Jonah |date=2009 |title=The Talented Patricia Highsmith |url=https://web.sonoma.edu/users/r/raskin/article_Highsmith.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181013211813/https://web.sonoma.edu/users/r/raskin/article_Highsmith.htm |archive-date=October 13, 2018 |access-date=October 13, 2018 |website=web.sonoma.edu}} (The article was published originally in ''The Redwood Coast Review''.)</ref>

Highsmith considered comics boring "hack work" and was determined to become a novelist. In the evenings she wrote short stories which she submitted, unsuccessfully, to publications such as ''The New Yorker.'' In 1944 she spent five months in Mexico where she worked on an unfinished novel "The Click of the Shutting".  On her return to Manhattan she worked on another unfinished novel "The Dove Descending".<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|pages=96, 102–111}}

The following year, "The Heroine," a story about a pyromaniac nanny that she had written in 1941, was published by ''[[Harper's Bazaar]]''. The publishers [[Knopf]] wrote her that they were interested in publishing any novels she might have. Nothing, however, came from their subsequent meeting. Highsmith's agents advised her that her stories needed to be more "upbeat" to be marketable but she wanted to write stories that reflected her vision of the world.<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|pages=119–120}}

In 1946, Highsmith read [[Albert Camus]]' ''[[The Stranger (Camus novel)|The Stranger]]'' and was impressed by his absurdist vision. The following year she commenced writing ''Strangers on a Train'', and her new agent submitted an early draft to a publisher's reader who recommended major revisions. Based on the recommendation of [[Truman Capote]], Highsmith was accepted by the [[Yaddo]] artist's retreat during the summer of 1948, where she worked on the novel.<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|pages=122–125, 137–143}}

''Strangers on a Train'' was accepted for publication by [[Harper & Brothers]] in May 1949. The following month, Highsmith sailed to Europe where she spent three months in England, France and Italy. In Italy, she visited [[Positano]] which would later become the major setting for her novel ''The Talented Mr. Ripley''. She read an anthology of [[Kierkegaard]] on the trip and declared him her new "master".<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|pages=155–159}}