I quite like Highsmith's novels. Wikipedia quotes someone as describing her as a "lesbian with a misogynist streak" which seems about right. I think that conflict comes through in the article: she was attracted to women but didn't like them and felt exactly the opposite toward men.
She was supposedly very funny and offbeat. I love this passage (also from wikipedia):
> Highsmith bred about three hundred snails in her garden at home in Suffolk, England. Highsmith once attended a London cocktail party with a "gigantic handbag" that "contained a head of lettuce and a hundred snails" which she said were her "companions for the evening."
She was supposedly very funny and offbeat. I love this passage (also from wikipedia):
> Highsmith bred about three hundred snails in her garden at home in Suffolk, England. Highsmith once attended a London cocktail party with a "gigantic handbag" that "contained a head of lettuce and a hundred snails" which she said were her "companions for the evening."