“Beloved.” “The Hate U Give.” “Maus.” “Burger’s Daughter.” Each of these books has been banned at some point in time, but one stands out. Instead of being banned in 21st-century America, Nadine Gordimer’s “Burger’s Daughter” was banned in 20th century South Africa during apartheid, that country’s period of official white supremacist rule.
Despite the decades and distance between bans on this book and the others, the rise in attempts to ban and censor books in America in 2022 looks an awful lot like what South African censors did during apartheid.
Fort Worth-born author of ‘Talented Mr. Ripley’ left behind a complicated, messy legacy
‘Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires,’ a new biography by Richard Bradford, explores the life and work of Patricia Highsmith.
Writer Patricia Highsmith at a film festival in Sept. 1987 in Deauville, France.(Denize-Pelletier / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
In 1967, Patricia Highsmith’s U.S. agent sent her a letter, explaining that editors thought her paperbacks weren’t selling well in America because they were “too subtle” for readers, and that there was “no one likable” in her book.
Highsmith didn’t respond to her agent directly, but wrote in a notebook: “Perhaps it is because I don’t like anyone.”
Ulf Andersen/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Author Patricia Highsmith, who was known for her psychological thrillers including 1950 s
Strangers on a Train and the Tom Ripley series, believed that life “didn’t make sense without crime in it.” Throughout her career, she published nearly two dozen novels and several short stories, many of which have been adapted for other mediums. Highsmith s works are still widely read and appreciated today because of their uniquely “modern feel,” making other writers’ works appear dated in comparison. Here are a few interesting facts about Patricia Highsmith, who was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on January 19, 1921.