See Jane Start a Fire: An Interview With Phyllis Nagy

Sheila Smith, Martha Scott, and Diane Stevens, arrested in a 1972 raid of the underground abortion service Jane.

After Patricia Highsmith’s death in 1995, her friend, playwright and filmmaker Phyllis Nagy, committed to adapting The Price of Salt for film. Nagy expected homophobic resistance—Highsmith herself used a pseudonym when she published this classic lesbian love story—but the real barrier to financing was that it starred two women. Nagy kept the faith and, a mere twenty years later, Carol was a critical sensation. Todd Haynes directed, and Nagy was nominated for an Oscar for her . . .