Search Results: strangers on a train by highsmith

New York: Harper & Brothers, [1950]., 1950. First edition. First edition of her first and best known novel. The author is (rightly) regarded as one of the greatest of all noir authors. This, Highsmith's first novel, published when she was 29, served as the basis for the excellent 1951 Warner Brothers film directed by Alfred Hitchcock with a screenplay by Raymond Chandler, Czenzi Ormonde and Whitfield Cook; it starred Robert Walker, Ruth Roman, and Farley Granger. Inscribed by the author on the half title page: "For -- -- I am surprised !!! to see this collector's item -- on 22 Oct. 1981. Pat Highsmith." Fine in dust jacket with some light wear to the spine ends, a tiny crease to the bottom edge of the front cover panel and two tiny nicks to the bottom edge of the rear cover panel. Both the spine and the front cover are bright and unfaded. In her first novel, Highsmith revels in eliciting the unsettling psychological forces that lurk beneath the surface of everyday life. Two men… Read more

New York: Harper & Brothers, [1950]., 1950. First edition. First edition of her first and best known novel. The author is (rightly) regarded as one of the greatest of all noir authors. This, Highsmith's first novel, published when she was 29, served as the basis for the excellent 1951 Warner Brothers film directed by Alfred Hitchcock with a screenplay by Raymond Chandler, Czenzi Ormonde and Whitfield Cook; it starred Robert Walker, Ruth Roman, and Farley Granger. Inscribed by the author on the title page: "For Clive Hirschhorn / With friendly good wishes / Patricia Highsmith / 31 Oct 1987 / London." Laid-in is a typed letter signed from Hirschhorn to Highsmith on Sunday Express letterhead where he requests that she sign his copy of her book, asks not to date her inscription to him, and asks if they might meet for lunch. Her inked reply is at the bottom of his letter and signed as "Pat." Hirschhorn held an epic tenure as theater critic for the British "Sunday… Read more

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1950. First edition of the author's first book. Octavo, original cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title page, "For Margaret avec plaisir Patricia Highsmith." Near fine in a very good dust jacket that shows some of the endemic fading to the spine panel. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. Rare and desirable signed and inscribed. "For eliciting the menace that lurks in familiar surroundings, there's no one like Patricia Highsmith" (Time). The success of Strangers on a Train allowed Highsmith to quit "hack" writing for magazines and devote her energies full time to fiction. "Her books evoke a quiet tension, a persistent apprehension, which is all the more terrifying and suspenseful for its aura of plausibility" (Vinson, 643-44). It was adapted as a film in 1951, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Farley Granger and Ruth Roman.

New York: Harper & Brothers, [1950], 1950. Highsmith's first novel, and the basis for Hitchcock's celebrated film noir. First edition. Date code B-Z (February 1950) on copyright page. 8vo. [viii], 299 pp. Light blue cloth. Slightly toned at edges and spine, wear at edges, no writing to pages in a good jacket with very little of the spine fading, minor chips to spine ends, repair at back edge, still presents very nicely. This book is signed by the author directly on the title page "Patricia Highsmith". Pictures available upon request. $4.500

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1950. First Edition of the author’s first book; made into a Hitchcock film of the same title. Both the book and dust jacket are waterstained; good. However, this copy is inscribed on the dedication page, “[name crossed out] Strangers in the night/ Jun 1, 1950/ Patricia Highsmith.” Exceptionally scarce with the author’s contemporary inscription (or even inscribed at all), this copy was signed just a few weeks after publication.