Patricia Highsmith "Mademoiselle", "Good Housekeeping", "Time", "Fortune", and "The New Yorker". Based on the recommendation from Truman Capote, Highsmith was accepted by the Yaddo artist's retreat during the summer of 1948, where she worked on her first novel, "Strangers on a Train". Highsmith endured cycles of depression, some of them deep, throughout her life. Despite literary success, she wrote in her diary of January 1970: "[I] am now cynical, fairly rich ... lonely, depressed, and totally pessimistic." Over the years, Highsmith suffered from female hormone deficiency, anorexia nervosa, chronic anemia, Buerger's disease, and lung cancer. According to her biographer Andrew Wilson, Highsmith's
The American Friend (and read) thrillers as much for atmosphere as for plot. And then he gives us so much atmosphere we're almost swimming in it." David Nusair of "Reel Film Reviews" had a more mixed reaction, calling the film "occasionally thrilling" and praising "Ganz's subtle, thoroughly compelling performance" but criticizing what he feels to be a "disastrous final half hour." Highsmith initially disliked the film but later changed her mind. Joan Schenkar's biography "The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith" quotes Wenders: "I was really happy with the picture and couldn't wait to have Patricia see