The Talented Miss Highsmith by Joan Schenkar Page A

and giving me a clear idea of just how lucky Pat was to have her support during their fifty years of friendship. Jim Amash guided me through the Golden Age of American Comics, introduced me to its living creators, and generously shared his research, his knowledge, and his classic comic books.
    Daniel Keel, fonder of Diogenes Verlag and Pat’s literary trustee, allowed me to read the Highsmith diaries and notebooks, provided hitherto unknown details of Pat’s life, and is publishing this biography in Switzerland. Anna von Planta’s experience as Pat’s editor at Diogenes and her astute critical suggestions enriched both my writing and my thinking. At St. Martin’s Press, Tim Bent gave me the entrée into Highsmith country, and Michael Flamini adopted the manuscript as his own, and allowed me the time I needed to write the book I wanted. Vicki Lame picked up the dropped stitches, Ellis Levine unpicked the legal knots, and John Morrone proffered crucial solutions. Russell Galen’s agenting has been, as always, my best support.
    The following people opened their private collections to me, greatly enhancing the scope of this work: Jim Amash, the late Jerry Bails, the late Ruth Bernhard, Ronald Blythe, Monique Buffet, Frédérique Chambrelent, Donald Oscar Coates, Ruda Brandel Dauphin, Peter Goedel, Janine Hérisson and Henri Robillot, the late Buffie Johnson, Priscilla Senn Kennedy, Ogden Kruger and Nora Ellen Lewis, Noëlle Loriot, Marijane Meaker, Christa Maerker, Christopher Petit, Annebelle Potin, Janice Robinson, Francis Wyndham.
    For repeated interviews in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Switzerland, I am deeply grateful to: Marion Aboudaram, Dr. Gerald Albert, Jim Amash, Larry Ashmead, the late Mark Barty-King, the late Sybille Bedford, Daniel Bell, Pearl Kazin Bell, Bettina Berch, the late Ruth Bernhard, Caroline Besterman, the late Ginette Billard, the late Karl Bissinger, Ronald Blythe, Tabea Blumenschein, Monique Buffet, France Burke, Miriam Burstein, Philippa Burton, Camilla Butterfield, Liz Calder, Claire Cauvin, Frédérique Chambrelent, Heather Chasen, Sarah Clapp, the late Dan Walton Coates, Don Coates, Jean-Étienne Cohen-Séat, the late Betty Comden, Betty Curry, Ruda Brandel Dauphin, Vivien De Bernardi, the late David Diamond, Bert Diener, the late Julia Diener-Diethelm, Joan Dupont, Dorothy Wheelock Edson, the late Will Eisner, the late Vince Fago, Michael Feldman, Gary Fisketjon, Peter Goedel, Robert Gottlieb, the late Elizabeth Hardwick, Janine Hérisson, Patrice Hoffman, Tanja Howarth, the late Anita Huber-Speck, Peter Huber, Helen Kandel Hyman, Peter Hyun, Al Jaffee, Marc Jaffee, the late Buffie Johnson, Olivia Kahn, Deborah Burstein Karp, Stanley Kauffmann, Daniel Keel, Priscilla Senn Kennedy, Jonathan Kent, the late Theodora Roosevelt Keogh, Everett Ray Kinstler, Jack Klaff, M. Knet, Ogden Kruger, Linda Ladurner, Marie-Jaqueline Lancaster, Alice Gershon Lassally, Ricky Leacock, Bob Lemstrom-Sheedy, Nora Ellen Lewis, Marianne Liggenstorfer-Fritsch, Noëlle Loriot, Robert Lumpkin, Christa Maerker, Marijane Meaker, Anne Morneweg, DéDé Moser, Patricia Schartle Myrer, Phyllis Nagy, Samuel Okoshken, Otto Penzler, the late Judith Conklin Peters, Patrick Peters, Christopher Petit, the late Phillip Lloyd Powell, H. M. Qualunque, John Rhodes, Donald S. Rice, Henri Robillot, Janice Robinson, Edward J. Roche, Barbara Roett, Florence Rosen, Jean Rosenthal, Juliette Ryan, Bruno Sager, “Sam,” Josyane Savigneau, Richard Schroeder, Marylin Scowden, Rita Rohner Semel, Kate Kingsley Skattebol, Myra Sklarew, the late Dame Muriel Spark, David Streiff, Mike Sundell, Anne Elisabeth Suter, the late Alex Szogyi, Philip Thompson, Tereska Torres, Tommy Tune, Anna von Planta, Wim Wenders, Donald Windham, the late William Woolfolk, Francis Wyndham.
    For important help from individuals and institutions, I am indebted to: Constance A.