Highsmith's Lovers Defied Her Antisemitism

American suspense novelist Patricia Highsmith, author of The Talented Mr. Ripley, publicly voiced antisemitic views while maintaining several intense, lengthy relationships with Jewish women. She recorded antisemitic slurs in her diaries and made offensive remarks at social gatherings, yet three of her most significant affairs involved two American women named Ellen Blumenthal Hill and Daisy Winton and a French artist named Marion Aboudaram. Highsmith biographer Richard Bradford found genuine affection in her relationships with Hill and Aboudaram, describing the contradiction as a central conundrum of her life.

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