Solitary walkers along the tree-lined streets were unusual, and Highsmith feared she would be discovered and revealed as a voyeur. Exiting the bus, she moved conspicuously along streets with tony homes. She recorded in her journal: “Today, feeling quite odd-like a murderer in a novel, I boarded the train.” Highsmith arrived at the Ridgewood train station, gulped down a couple of stiff drinks, then clambered aboard a bus to find the house-and perhaps steal a glimpse of the divine Mrs. On June 30, 1950, one day after completing a first draft of Price of Salt, Highsmith took a train from Penn Station to Ridgewood, New Jersey.
As she admitted about herself, “Obsessions are the only things that matter.” In fact, Highsmith stalked Senn. Twice, however, Highsmith indulged her obsessive curiosity about the real Mrs. Highsmith spent hours huddled over her notebooks and typewriter until she had imaged Senn as the character Carol Aird in the novel The Price of Salt. The name of the woman who skittered into Highsmith’s life that day in Bloomingdale’s was Kathleen Senn.
0 kommentar(er)
