The Cry of the Owl was published by Harper & Row in 1962 and represents Highsmith at her most characteristically unsettling — not because of what happens, but because of how the mechanics of suspicion and guilt operate independently of actual crime. The novel begins with a man watching a woman through her kitchen window and spirals into a nightmare in which observation itself becomes a form of transgression that society punishes with the full force of its paranoia.
The Novel
Robert Forester is recently divorced, emotionally fragile, and living alone in a small Pennsylvania town. He has developed a habit of walking at night and pausing outside the home of Jenny Thierolf, watching her through the window as she cooks, reads, and moves through her domestic routine. There is nothing sexual in his watching — or at least, nothing overtly so. He finds peace in observing an orderly, calm life that contrasts with his own internal chaos.
When Jenny discovers him and — instead of calling the police — invites him in, a relationship begins that triggers a catastrophic chain of events. Jenny’s boyfriend Greg becomes violently jealous. Greg disappears. Robert is blamed. The community’s suspicion calcifies into certainty, and Robert finds himself trapped in a web of accusation he cannot escape because the logic of his innocence is less compelling than the narrative of his guilt.
Highsmith’s signature insight drives the novel: in a world governed by appearances, the innocent man who behaves strangely is more vulnerable than the guilty man who maintains conventions. Robert’s watching — which is genuinely harmless — marks him as deviant. Once marked, everything he does confirms the community’s judgment.
Themes and Structure
The novel operates on several levels simultaneously. It is a thriller about false accusation. It is a study of small-town paranoia and mob psychology. It is a meditation on the relationship between watching and participation — a theme that anticipates later cultural anxieties about surveillance, voyeurism, and the ethics of observation.
Highsmith was deeply interested in the way people construct narratives to explain events, and in how those narratives, once established, resist correction. Robert’s protestations of innocence only make him seem more guilty. His rational explanations sound like elaborate alibis. The more truthful he is, the less credible he becomes — because truth, in Highsmith’s world, is always less persuasive than a good story.
The title refers to an owl Robert hears during his night walks — a cry that is natural, harmless, and yet unsettling. Like Robert himself, the owl is a nocturnal creature whose presence disturbs without intending to.
Publication History
The first edition was published by Harper & Row, New York, in 1962. First printings are identified by:
- Harper & Row imprint on title page
- First edition code on copyright page
- Price of $3.95 on dust jacket front flap
- Dark cloth binding with gilt spine stamping
The UK edition was published by Heinemann (London, 1963). The novel was translated into French (where Highsmith was enormously popular) as Le Cri du hibou and later adapted into a French film of the same name in 1987, directed by Claude Chabrol.
A second English-language film adaptation appeared in 2009, directed by Jamie Thraves and starring Paddy Considine, though it received limited distribution.
Critical Reputation
The Cry of the Owl is regarded as a transitional work in Highsmith’s career — written between the first Ripley novel and The Glass Cell (1964), it shows her refining the technique of building suspense not from action but from the slow accumulation of circumstantial evidence against an essentially passive protagonist.
Julian Symons praised the novel’s “quiet intensity” and its demonstration that Highsmith could generate terror from ordinary situations without recourse to violence or sensationalism. Later critics have noted its anticipation of themes that would dominate literary fiction decades later — the unreliable narrator, the constructed nature of guilt, the impossibility of establishing truth in a post-truth society.
Collecting The Cry of the Owl
First edition (Harper & Row, 1962): Fine copies in dust jacket bring $200–$600. The novel was printed in modest numbers, as Highsmith’s American sales remained relatively small throughout the 1960s.
UK first edition (Heinemann, 1963): Comparable values, $150–$400 for fine copies with jacket.
French first edition (Le Cri du hibou, Calmann-Lévy): Collected by Highsmith specialists, typically $50–$100.
Signed copies are quite rare. By 1962 Highsmith was living primarily in Europe, and her American editions were not widely available for signing events. Authenticated signed copies of any 1960s Highsmith title command significant premiums.