When my partner Rob and I were visiting New York some years ago we spent a rainy morning in Bloomingdale’s department store. It was serendipitous, because I found a pair of classic tweed pants I had searched for unsuccessfully in Sydney. I wear them to this day; a memento of that city of excitement, aspiration and excess.
I should say at the outset that I am well aware of how banal my Bloomingdale’s experience was in relation to what I’m about to write. 😎
Fast forward a couple of decades to 2025. I read a review of Patricia Highsmith’s The New York Years; Diaries & Notebooks 1941 – 1950. It mentioned Bloomingdale’s in relation to one of Highsmith’s early novels, The Price of Salt (later titled Carol). I bought the diaries and was totally immersed in them for days. Anything to do with life in The Big Apple fascinates me, and Highsmith’s life was certainly full on!
The entries begin with the twenty year old Highsmith in her senior year at Barnard College, busy studying, editing the college’s literary journal and honing her own writing . Meanwhile her private life was a chaotic round of partying, drinking, and infidelity within a string of predominantly same sex affairs.
Patricia Highsmith on the steps of Barnard Hall (Source – Barnard Archives)
Despite the conservatism of the day, there was a certain freedom for the young woman within a bohemian circle of mainly older, creative people in Greenwich Village. After leaving college her self-destructive lifestyle continued; the angst fueling her burgeoning success as a writer.
Nevertheless, by 1948 Highsmith was considering conforming to social norms by marrying British novelist Marc Brandel. She sought help regarding her sexuality from a psychoanalyst, Dr Eva Klein. To cover the cost of therapy Highsmith took a Christmas job at Bloomingdale’s. What eventuated was of course such a delicious irony.
December 6 1948
Fist day at Bloomindale’s. Training, and then toy department. Very pleased.
December 7 1948
Hard work. Selling dolls, how ugly and expensive. And then – at 5.00 P.M., someone stole my meat for dinner! What kind of wolves one works with!
December 8 1948
Was this the day I saw Mrs. E.M. Senn? How we looked at each other – this intelligent looking woman? I want to send a Christmas card, and am planning what I’ll write on it.
December 15, 1948
Lunch with mother. Very pleasant, and I told her almost everything I’ve learned from Dr Klein. She understands . They were going to transfer me to ‘Lingerie’, but I resigned. Am considering a novel about Bloomingdales.
In fact, Highsmith had gone straight home after the encounter with Mrs Senn and feverishly written a plot outline she titled The Bloomingdale Story. Mrs Senn was fictionalised as the character Carol Aird. Bloomingdale’s became Frankenberg’s.
Two years later Highsmith was writing the semi-autobiographical, full length book titled The Price of Salt. It was a deeply emotional experience, as her obsessive creative drive was heightened by tortured passion for the unattainable , ‘ Oh God, how this story emerges from my own bones! The tragedy, the tears, the infinite grief, which is unavailing!
June 6 1950
Today I fell madly in love with my Carol. What finer thing can there be but to fling the sharpest point of my strength into her creation day after day? And at night be exhausted. I want to spend all my time, all my evenings with her. I want to be faithful to her. How can I be otherwise?
The following scene is from the 2015 movie of the book. starring Australian Cate Blanchett as Carol Aird. and Rooney Mara as Therese Belivet.
The mink coated woman who approached the doll counter in Bloomingdale’s was Kathleen Senn, the beautiful. self-possessed wife of a wealthy businessman. But sadly, she was an alcoholic with severe mental health problems. She committed suicide in her garage in 1951, A year earlier Highsmith had secretly travelled to Senn’s address hoping to catch another glimpse of her.
By the time the novel was completed, Highsmith had published her debut, bestselling book Strangers on a Train, and sold the movie rights to Alfred Hitchcock.
THE BLOOMINGDALE’S STORY IN PRINT
Due to the controversial nature of The Price of Salt it was decided to publish it under the pseudonym Claire Morgan. There was also a more practical aspect to the decision. After the success of her psychological thriller it was felt that producing a work in a different, niche genre would be a setback to Highsmith’s career. It was not until 1990 that it was republished under the author’s own name and retitled Carol.
But was it really a different genre? In my mind, no. Despite being a love story there are sinister undertones and threats of violence, such as the revolver in the Carol Aird’s glovebox and the spying private detective.
When the film of the book was released it received a fifteen minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival. Its success led to The novel being enjoyed by a much broader readership.
Highsmith wrote the following words on December 31, 1947.
2.30 A.M. My New Year’s Toast: To all the devils, lusts, passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange desires, enemies ghostly and real, the army of memories, with which I do battle – may they never give me peace. ‘ Her readers can be very glad that they did not give her peace. What a perfect epitaph for a complex, brilliant writer, who was faithful only to her work.
Patricia Highsmith died in Locarno, Switzerland in 1995, aged 74. Her literary legacy includes the unforgettable ‘Ripley’ series of psychological crime novels.
NOTE – As I was writing this piece The Sydney Theatre Company began a season of The Talented Mr Ripley. Now there’s a co-incidence.
TO READ THE INTIAL DRAFT OF ‘THE BLOOMINGDALE’S STORY’, CLICK HERE.
