Editing Patricia Highsmith (section)

== Switzerland and final years ==
[[File:Highsmith on After Dark.JPG|245px|right|thumb|Highsmith [[After Dark (TV series)#Patricia Highsmith|discussing murder]] on British television programme ''[[After Dark (TV programme)|After Dark]]'' (June 1988)]]
In 1981, Highsmith moved into her Swiss home and began writing a new novel, ''[[People Who Knock on the Door|People who Knock on the Door]]'' (1983), about the influence of Christian fundamentalism in America. This, and her following novel, ''[[Found in the Street]]'' (1986)'','' were partly based on a research trip to America in early 1981.<ref name="Bradford2021" />{{Rp|pages=220–223}} Her biographer [[Joan Schenkar]] states that by this time Highsmith had been living in Europe so long she "began to make errors of American fact and understanding in her novels." Highsmith described ''People who Knock on the Door'' as "a flat book, but popular in France, Germany and E[ast] Germany."<ref name="Schenkar2009" />{{Rp|pages=450–451, 463}}

In 1986, Highsmith had a successful operation for lung cancer. Shortly after, she commissioned a new home in [[Tegna, Switzerland|Tegna]], Switzerland. The home was in the brutalist style and her friends called it "the bunker." There she completed her last two novels, ''Ripley Under Water'' (1991) and ''[[Small g: a Summer Idyll|Small g: A Summer Idyll]]'' (1995). In 1990 she was made an Officer of the [[Order of Arts and Letters]] of France.<ref name="Schenkar2009" />{{Rp|page=589}} In 1993 her health deteriorated and she required the help of a home carer.<ref name="Bradford2021" />{{Rp|pages=238–243}}

Highsmith died on February 4, 1995, at 74, from [[aplastic anemia]] and [[lung cancer]] at Carita Hospital in [[Locarno]], Switzerland, near Tegna. She was cremated at the cemetery in [[Bellinzona]]; a memorial service was conducted in the Chiesa di Tegna in Tegna and her ashes were interred in its [[columbarium]].<ref name="Schenkar2009" />{{Rp|page=590}}<ref name="hodgson">{{cite news |last1=Hodgson |first1=Godfrey |date=February 6, 1995 |title=Obituary: Patricia Highsmith |url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-patricia-highsmith-1571740.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151029064931/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-patricia-highsmith-1571740.html |archive-date=October 29, 2015 |access-date=March 16, 2017 |work=[[The Independent]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Dupont |first=Joan |date=September 9, 1997 |title=A Writer's Legacy: Little Tales of Cats and Snails |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/09/style/09iht-smith.t.html |access-date=April 7, 2016 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Kennedy |first=Randy |date=February 5, 1995 |title=Patricia Highsmith, Writer Of Crime Tales, Dies at 74 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/05/obituaries/patricia-highsmith-writer-of-crime-tales-dies-at-74.html |access-date=April 7, 2016 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

She left her [[Estate (law)|estate]], worth an estimated $3 million, and the promise of any future royalties, to the [[Yaddo]] colony, where she spent two months in 1948 writing the draft of ''Strangers on a Train''.<ref name="Wilson2003" />{{Rp|page=139}}{{efn|During her lifetime, Highsmith supported Yaddo with contributions she preferred to keep anonymous. One of these gifts created an endowed fund to underwrite an annual residency for a young creative artist working in any medium. At her request the residency is now known as the "Patricia Highsmith-Plangman Residency".<ref>{{cite news|title=Yaddo Shadow|url=ftp://ftp.yaddo.org/Yaddo/newsletter-spring2004.pdf|access-date=March 13, 2016|work=[[Yaddo]]|date=Spring 2004|pages=14–17}}{{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>}} Highsmith bequeathed her [[literary estate]] to the [[Swiss Literary Archives]] at the [[Swiss National Library]] in Bern, Switzerland.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Swiss Literary Archives |date=March 7, 2006 |title=Patricia Highsmith at the Swiss National Library |url=https://www.news.admin.ch/en/nsb?id=3558 |access-date=March 13, 2016 |website=Swiss National Library |publisher=Schweizerische Nationalbibliothek}}</ref> Her Swiss publisher, [[Diogenes Verlag]], which had principal rights to her work, was appointed literary executor of the estate.<ref name="bolonik">{{cite magazine |last1=Bolonik |first1=Kera |date=November 20, 2003 |title=Murder, She Wrote |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/murder-she-wrote/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116235015/https://www.thenation.com/article/murder-she-wrote/ |archive-date=November 16, 2018 |access-date=March 15, 2016 |magazine=[[The Nation]]}}</ref><ref name="Schenkar2009" />{{Rp|page=579}}

Her last novel, ''Small g: a Summer Idyll'', was rejected by Knopf (her most recent American publisher) several months before her death.<ref name="Bradford2021" />{{Rp|page=243}} It was published posthumously in the United Kingdom by [[Bloomsbury Publishing]] in March 1995,<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=King |first1=Francis |date=March 18, 1995 |title=Perverse and foolish |url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/18th-march-1995/34/perverse-and-foolish |access-date=June 13, 2017 |magazine=[[The Spectator]]}}</ref> and nine years later in the United States by [[W. W. Norton]].<ref name="leavitt">{{cite news |last1=Leavitt |first1=David |date=June 20, 2004 |title=Strangers in a Bar |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/20/books/strangers-in-a-bar.html |access-date=November 27, 2015 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> The novel sold 50,000 copies in France within six weeks of her death.<ref name="Bradford2021" />{{Rp|page=243}}

Highsmith's literary estate included eight thousand pages of handwritten notebooks and diaries.<ref name="Schenkar-ParisR">{{cite magazine |last1=Schenkar |first1=Joan |date=September 29, 2011 |title=After Patricia |url=http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/12/29/after-patricia/ |access-date=October 6, 2015 |magazine=[[The Paris Review]]}}</ref>