a book
The Price of Salt
Patricia Highsmith · 1952 · 377 pages
THE PRICE OF SALT is the famous lesbian love story by Patricia Highsmith, written under the pseudonym Claire Morgan. The author became notorious due to the story's latent lesbian content and happy ending, the latter having been unprecedented in homosexual fiction. Highsmith recalled that the novel was inspired by a mysterious woman she happened across in a shop and briefly stalked. Because of the happy ending (or at least an ending with the possibility of happiness) which defied the lesbian pulp formula and because of the unconventional characters that defied stereotypes about homosexuality, THE PRICE OF SALT was popular among lesbians in the 1950s. The book fell out of print but was re-issued and lives on today as a pioneering work of lesbian romance.
recommended by 2 people
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Alison Bechdel
“This has been on my list forever, but it’s been getting a lot of attention lately because of Todd Haynes’s excellent movie adaptation, ‘Carol.’ It was the first novel about lesbians to have a happy ending, but it’s also a really unnerving and propulsive story, like all of Patricia Highsmith’s books. She originally published it under a pseudonym so it didn’t wreck her career.”↗
Brandon Taylor
“This novel is about a young person trying to figure out who they are and who they love, and it’s rendered with the same sensitive perception that Highsmith brings to every book. The writing alone is electric and beautiful, but the characters are utterly unforgettable.”↗