Louise Perkins Fitzhugh (October 5, 1928 – November 19, 1974) was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. Fitzhugh is best known for her 1964 novel Harriet The Spy, about an adolescent girl who to keeps a journal recording the foibles of her friends, classmates, and captivating strangers. The novel was later adapted into a live action film in 1996. The sequel novel, The Long Secret, was published in 1965, and its follow-up book, Sport, was published posthumously in 1979. Fitzhugh also wrote Nobody's Family Is Going to Change, which was later adapted into a short film and a Broadway musical.

Fitzhugh died at age 46 from a brain aneurysm on November 19, 1974.

Early life and family

Louise Fitzhugh was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on October 5, 1928, as the only child of Louise and Millsaps Fitzhugh, a lawyer. Her father came from a wealthy family in Memphis, and she is a descendant of Reuben Millsaps, the founder of Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. He graduated from Emory University and met Louise Perkins, an aspiring tap dancer, in 1926 on a boat traveling from New York to England. They married, but his family disapproved of the marriage due to her lower social standing and they divorced after a year, shortly following Fitzhugh's birth in 1928. The manuscript was rejected by an agent for its lesbian subject matter, and later disappeared.

Harriet The Spy

After the success of Suzuki Beane, Fitzhugh began working with editors Ursula Nordstrom and Charlotte Zolotow, who helped publish her most successful work, Harriet The Spy, through Harper and Row. It was published in 1964 to some controversy, since its characters were flawed and engaged in behavior that many felt weren't suitable for children. Harriet is the daughter of affluent New Yorkers who leave her in the care of her nanny, Ole Golly, in their Manhattan townhouse. A curious and solitary child, she spends her time spying on other people, often her friends and neighbors, recording her cynical and bluntly rude observations in a notebook.

The book has been adapted three times, starting in 1996 with a film starring Michelle Trachtenberg and Rosie O'Donnell. In 2010, it was adapted as the Disney movie, Harriet The Spy: Blog Wars and in 2021 as an animated series by Apple TV+ starring Beanie Feldstein.

The book and Harriet's tomboyish character is often linked to Fitzhugh's identity as a lesbian despite a lack of direct references to homosexuality. The character was based on Marijane Meaker as well as some of Fitzhugh's own experiences. Irene Zahava dedicated The Second Womansleuth Anthology to Harriet and fictional lesbian detective characters created by Elizabeth Pincus and Bonnie Morris cite Harriet as a childhood influence.

She wrote two other books in the same universe, The Long Secret and Sport.

Posthumous publications and adaptations

Several of Fitzhugh's books were published posthumously, including Nobody's Family is Going to Change, published eight days after her death in 1974. Nobody's Family Is Going to Change was adapted into the short film The Tap Dance Kid for Special Treat in 1978. It was also adapted into the 1983 Tony-nominated musical The Tap Dance Kid.

Other posthumous publications included Sport (1979), I Am Five <u>(</u>1978), I am Four (1982), and I Am Three (1982). According to her biographer, Virginia L. Wolf, Fitzhugh had left two adult fiction works at the time of her death, an unfinished novel, "Crazybaby," and a completed play, "Mother Sweet, Father Sweet."

Death

Fitzhugh died on November 19, 1974, at a New Milford, Connecticut hospital of a brain aneurysm.

Works

Novels

  • Harriet The Spy (Harper & Row, 1964)
  • The Long Secret (Harper & Row, 1965) – sequel to Harriet The Spy
  • Nobody's Family Is Going to Change (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974),
  • Sport (Delacorte, 1979) – posthumously published quasi-sequel to Harriet,

Children's books

  • Bang, Bang, You're Dead, (co-written with Sandra Scoppettone), illus. Fitzhugh (Harper & Row, 1969),
  • I Am Five, written and illus. by Fitzhugh (Delacorte Press, 1978),
  • I Am Four, illus. Susan Bonners (Delacorte, 1982),
  • I Am Three, illus. Susanna Natti (Delacorte, 1982),

As illustrator only

  • Suzuki Beane, written by Sandra Scoppettone, (Doubleday, 1961),

Awards

  • New York Times Outstanding Books of the Year citation, 1964
  • Oklahoma Sequoyah Book Award, 1967 (Harriet The Spy)

;Posthumous

  • Children's Book Bulletin, 1976 (Nobody's Family Is Going to Change)
  • Children's Workshop Other Award, 1976 (Nobody's Family Is Going to Change)
  • Emmy Award for children's entertainment special (The Tap Dance Kid, based on Nobody's Family Is Going to Change).

References

Further reading

  • Grant, Neva. "Unapologetically Harriet, the Misfit Spy." NPR, March 3, 2008.
  • Bard College. "Women Arrive." (Photograph 5 shows Fitzhugh as a model for a painting c.1949.)