The Price of Salt was published by Coward-McCann, New York, in 1952, under the pseudonym Claire Morgan, in a first printing priced at $2.75. Highsmith’s publisher had advised against publishing it under her own name, fearing it would damage her career. The novel sold modestly in hardcover but became a sensation in paperback — the Bantam mass-market edition (1953) reportedly sold nearly a million copies. It was one of the first novels with a lesbian protagonist to end with the lovers together rather than dead, institutionalised, or “cured.” Highsmith did not acknowledge authorship until 1990, when Bloomsbury republished it as Carol.
The Novel
Therese Belivet is nineteen, working in the toy department at Frankenberg’s (modelled on Bloomingdale’s) during the Christmas rush. She is dating a bland young man named Richard. One day, a beautiful, self-possessed woman in a fur coat — Carol Aird — comes to the counter to buy a doll. Therese is transfixed. She sends Carol a Christmas card; Carol calls her; they begin meeting.
Carol is in the process of a bitter divorce from Harge Aird. She has a young daughter, Rindy. Harge is using Carol’s past relationship with a woman named Abby as leverage to deny her custody. Carol and Therese embark on a road trip west — through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and on toward the Rockies — and their relationship becomes physical. Meanwhile, Harge has hired a private detective who follows them and records evidence through the wall of a motel room.
The novel’s climax comes when Carol must choose: her daughter or Therese. She chooses to fight for custody on her own terms, refusing to renounce her relationship. She loses — Harge gets the child. But she does not lose Therese: the novel ends with them reuniting in a restaurant, looking at each other across the room. The final sentence — “And there would be Carol” — is one of the most famous endings in queer literature.
A Happy Ending
Highsmith later wrote in an afterword that she received thousands of letters from readers — the majority grateful that the novel ended happily. This was, in 1952, revolutionary. Lesbian fiction of the period (and for decades afterward) was governed by an unwritten rule: queer characters must be punished. They must die, go mad, return to heterosexuality, or otherwise suffer for their desires. The Price of Salt broke that rule. The lovers survive. They are not punished. The world is hostile, but they endure.
Collecting The Price of Salt
First edition (1952, Coward-McCann, as Claire Morgan): Small first printing.
Identification points:
- Coward-McCann imprint
- Author listed as “Claire Morgan”
- Dust jacket
Approximate market values:
- Fine/Fine in dust jacket (as Claire Morgan): $5,000–$15,000
- Signed as Highsmith: $10,000–$30,000+
- Bantam paperback first (1953): $200–$600
- Carol (1990 Bloomsbury, under Highsmith’s name): $200–$600
Value trajectory: Dramatic appreciation, accelerated by the 2015 Todd Haynes film Carol (starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara). The film brought the novel to a global audience, and first editions under the Claire Morgan pseudonym have become prized collectibles. The bibliographic complexity — two names, two titles, multiple editions — adds collector interest. Highsmith-signed copies are rare and extremely valuable.
The Haynes Film
Todd Haynes’s Carol (2015) is one of the finest literary adaptations in recent cinema. Haynes captures the period detail — the fur coats, the department store, the motels — with obsessive precision, and the performances (Blanchett’s Carol is imperious and vulnerable; Mara’s Therese is quietly fierce) are extraordinary. The film does not sentimentalise the story; it preserves Highsmith’s clear-eyed assessment of the costs of desire in a hostile world.