IN: Highsmith was born Mary Patricia Plangman in Fort Worth, Texas. She was the only child of artists Jay Bernard Plangman (1889-1975), who was of German descent, and Mary Plangman (nee Coates; September 13, 1895 - March 12, 1991). The couple divorced ten days before their daughter's birth. In 1927, Highsmith, her mother and her adoptive stepfather, artist Stanley Highsmith, whom her mother had married in 1924, moved to New York City.

Before her short stories started appearing in print, Highsmith wrote for comic book publishers from 1942 and 1948, while she lived in New York City and Mexico. Answering an ad for "reporter/rewrite," she landed a job working for comic book publisher Ned Pines in a "bullpen" with four artists and three other writers. Initially scripting two comic-book stories a day for $55-a-week paychecks, Highsmith soon realized she could make more money by freelance writing for comics, a situation which enabled her to find time to work on her own short stories and live for a period in Mexico. The comic book scriptwriter job was the only long-term job Highsmith ever held. From 1942-43, for the Sangor-Pines shop (Better/Cinema/Pines/Standard/Nedor), Highsmith wrote "Sergeant Bill King" stories and contributed to Black Terror and Fighting Yank comics; and wrote profiles such as Catherine the Great, Barney Ross, and Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker for the "Real Life Comics" series. From 1943-1946, under editor Vincent Fago at Timely Comics, she contributed to its U.S.A. Comics wartime series, writing scenarios for comics such as Jap Buster Johnson and The Destroyer. During these same years she wrote for Fawcett Publications, scripting for Fawcett Comics characters "Crisco and Jasper" and others. Highsmith also wrote for Western Comics from 1945 to 1947. When Highsmith wrote the psychological thriller novel The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955), one of the title character's first victims is a comic-book artist named Reddington: "Tom had a hunch about Reddington. He was a comic-book artist. He probably didn't know whether he was coming or going."

What comics did she write for Western Comics?

OUT: psychological thriller novel The Talented Mr. Ripley

IN: Larsson was born in Helsingborg, Scania. His father, Francisco Rocha, is from Cape Verde, and his mother, Eva Larsson, is Swedish. His parents, who never married and split up when he was 12, decided that he should take his mother's surname because they felt it would make it easier for their son to be accepted in Sweden. He credits his father for his love of football.

Shortly after rejoining Helsingborg, Larsson was signed on loan by Manchester United from 1 January until 12 March 2007, coinciding with the Allsvenskan's off-season. He scored on his debut against Aston Villa in the FA Cup third round on 7 January 2007 at Old Trafford. Larsson scored his first ever FA Premier League goal on 31 January in a 4-0 win over Watford. While United were eager to extend the loan deal, Larsson stated that he had made a promise to his family and his club to return on 12 March. This was confirmed on 20 February, when Larsson announced that he would not be extending his loan period. Despite this, Sir Alex Ferguson was full of praise for the striker, who scored 3 goals in 13 matches in all competitions during his three-month stay, saying, "He's been fantastic for us, his professionalism, his attitude, everything he's done has been excellent." "We would love him to stay but, obviously, he has made his promise to his family and Helsingborg and I think we should respect that - but I would have done anything to keep him." Larsson scored Manchester United's only goal in their win against Lille at Old Trafford in the Champions League. He made his final appearance for United on 10 March in an FA Cup sixth round tie away to Middlesbrough, ending in a 2-2 draw. Manchester United won the Premier League two months after Larsson had left the club, and although he had not played the required quota of ten league games to qualify for a Premier League winners medal, he, alongside Alan Smith, was granted special dispensation by the Premier League after the club requested extra medals for the two. Larsson's last appearance at Old Trafford in fact came against United, the day after his loan with the club expired, as captain for a Europe XI team in the UEFA Celebration Match. Larsson received a standing ovation from the home fans upon being substituted for Liverpool player Robbie Fowler.

Did he retire at that point?

OUT: his club to return on 12 March.

IN: Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir ( or ; French pronunciation: [simon d@ bovwaR] ( listen); 9 January 1908 - 14 April 1986) was a French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist and social theorist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, she had a significant influence on both feminist existentialism and feminist theory. De Beauvoir wrote novels, essays, biographies, autobiography and monographs on philosophy, politics and social issues. She was known for her 1949 treatise The Second Sex, a detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism; and for her novels, including She Came to Stay and The Mandarins.

De Beauvoir was intellectually precocious, fuelled by her father's encouragement; he reportedly would boast, "Simone thinks like a man!" Because of her family's straitened circumstances, de Beauvoir could no longer rely on her dowry, and like other middle-class girls of her age, her marriage opportunities were put at risk. De Beauvoir took this opportunity to do what she always wanted to do while also taking steps to earn a living for herself. After passing baccalaureate exams in mathematics and philosophy in 1925, she studied mathematics at the Institut Catholique de Paris and literature/languages at the Institut Sainte-Marie. She then studied philosophy at the Sorbonne and after completing her degree in 1928, she wrote her diplome d'etudes superieures (roughly equivalent to an MA thesis) on Leibniz for Leon Brunschvicg (the topic was "Le concept chez Leibniz" ["The Concept in Leibniz"]). De Beauvoir was only the ninth woman to have received a degree from the Sorbonne at the time, due to the fact that French women had only recently been allowed to join higher education. De Beauvoir first worked with Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Claude Levi-Strauss, when all three completed their practice teaching requirements at the same secondary school. Although not officially enrolled, she sat in on courses at the Ecole Normale Superieure in preparation for the agregation in philosophy, a highly competitive postgraduate examination which serves as a national ranking of students. It was while studying for the agregation that she met Ecole Normale students Jean-Paul Sartre, Paul Nizan, and Rene Maheu (who gave her the lasting nickname "Castor", or beaver). The jury for the agregation narrowly awarded Sartre first place instead of de Beauvoir, who placed second and, at age 21, was the youngest person ever to pass the exam. Writing of her youth in Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter she said: "...my father's individualism and pagan ethical standards were in complete contrast to the rigidly moral conventionalism of my mother's teaching. This disequilibrium, which made my life a kind of endless disputation, is the main reason why I became an intellectual."

What did she study?

OUT:
mathematics and philosophy