Patria Highsmith has herself discussed the origins of the novel. She wrote about it detail
HERE for the Telegraph, but here are some highlights:
Quote:
One morning, into this chaos of noise and commerce, there walked a blondish woman in a fur coat. She drifted towards the doll counter with a look of uncertainty – should she buy a doll or something else? – and I think she was slapping a pair of gloves absently into one hand.
Perhaps I noticed her because she was alone, or because a mink coat was a rarity, and because she was blondish and seemed to give off light. With the same thoughtful air, she purchased a doll, one of two or three I had shown her, and I wrote her name and address on the receipt, because the doll was to be delivered to an adjacent state. It was a routine transaction, the woman paid and departed. But I felt odd and swimmy in the head, near to fainting, yet at the same time uplifted, as if I had seen a vision.
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(Of note, Blanchett makes this motion with the gloves in the film adaptation).
Quote:
As usual, I went home after work to my apartment, where I lived alone. That evening I wrote out an idea, a plot, a story about the blondish and elegant woman in the fur coat. I wrote some eight pages in longhand in my then-current notebook or cahier.
"The woman paid and left, but I felt odd and swimmy in the head, near to fainting, as if I had seen a vision"
This was the entire story of The Price of Salt. It flowed from my pen as if from nowhere – beginning, middle and end. It took me about two hours, perhaps less.
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