Known for her psychopathic antiheroes and novels such as “The Talented Mr. Ripley” and “The Price of Salt,” Highsmith was a tangle of contradictions. Credit...Photo: Swiss Literary Archives, Bern ...

Her distinctive prose and sharp eye were tuned to an outsider’s frequency, telling us about ourselves in essays that are almost reflexively skeptical. Here’s where to start. Credit...John Bryson/Getty ...