Date: Fri 10-Apr-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: CAROLL

Quick Words:

Bequest

Full Text:

Bequest From Patricia Highsmith To Yaddo

w/cut

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Yaddo, one of the country's most distinguished

artists' communities, has announced that the American writer Patricia

Highsmith bequeathed her entire estate to the organization. The bequest,

valued at over $3 million, represents the largest single contribution to Yaddo

since the Trask family founded the community in 1900.

The gift comes to Yaddo on the 50th anniversary of Highsmith's visit in the

summer of 1948, when she wrote her first published novel, Strangers on a

Train. It also arrives on the eve of The Museum of Modern Art's film series

based on her novels and honoring her work, entitled Poet of Apprehension: From

Yaddo to the Screen. The series runs from April 16-25.

Yaddo, which has nurtured the talents of some of the country's most renowned

writers, painters, composers and other creative artists for nearly a century,

made a profoundly important impression on Highsmith. Although she chose to

spend most of her life living and working in Europe, where her work has gained

its widest recognition, Highsmith stayed in touch with Yaddo until her death

in 1995.

Born in Fort Worth, Tex., in 1921, Highsmith spent her childhood in New York

City, and graduated from Barnard College. She lived for many years in England

and France, where she wrote most of her 20 best-selling novels and collections

of short stories. Highsmith is perhaps best remembered for creating the

character Tom Ripley, a fine-mannered man who dabbled in the arts as easily as

he dabbled in murder. The bequest to Yaddo was executed in southern

Switzerland, where she spent the last years of her life.

Highsmith's first published novel, Strangers on a Train, was quickly

discovered by Alfred Hitchcock. Working with writers Raymond Chandler and

Czenzi Ormonde, Hitchcock adapted the story for the film he produced, which

became a major critical and box-office hit starring Farley Granger.

Mary Lea Bandy, curator of The Museum of Modern Art's Department of Film and

Video, has worked closely with Yaddo and its president, Michael Sundell, to

present Poet of Apprehension: From Yaddo to the Screen, the first series in

the United States devoted to Highsmith's extraordinary work. The title of the

nine-film series is attributed to Graham Greene, who frequently corresponded

with Highsmith and who once referred to her as "the poet of apprehension,"

because of the way she draws her readers into uneasy complicity with her

characters. For more information on the film series, 212/708-9752.