A new biography seeks to memorialize Louise Fitzhugh, the author of “Harriet the Spy,” as an unsung queer, feminist exemplar.
“Brody’s project is to rescue Fitzhugh from the morass of kid lit and memorialize her as an unsung queer, feminist exemplar—a significant figure of the second wave.”
EB: How did you begin writing in general and writing nonfiction specifically? What drew you to writing biographies?
LB: I’ve been a writer since childhood. I was one of those kids who wrote stories about her schoolmates and teachers. It was, I guess a way to get attention and stand out, since it came easily and no one else I knew had thought of it. I kept pushing the envelope and making up more elaborate stories, until my third-grade teacher, offended by my unlicensed output, accused me of lying. This was a brutal education in imagination and power. My mother encouraged me to keep writing, and now I have been at it for most of my life.
LESLIE BRODY, local author and University of Redlands professor of creative writing is this year’s GUEST SPEAKER at The Friends of A.K. Smiley Public Library’s Annual Membership Meeting on Sunday June 6, 2021 at 3:30 PM via ZOOM. This virtual event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. Join the Zoom Meeting here https://bit.ly/3uX0oTk or by logging into the Zoom website with Meeting ID: 546 218 7291 and Passcode: 2MBPQ7
LESLIE BRODY is the author of the critically acclaimed new biography, Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy, published by Seal Press in December 2020. Her previous books include, Irrepressible, the Life and Times of Jessica Mitford and Red Star Sister.
“Brody has written a fascinating and insightful biography of a complex and fascinating personality who has inspired many living writers, including Alison Bechdel (Fun Home).”
Sometimes You Have to Lie has been nominated for an Anthony Award in the “Best Critical or Nonfiction Work” category.
“In 1963 thirty-four-year-old Louise Fitzhugh was fresh off a successful exhibition of her paintings and drawings at an Upper East Side gallery when she suddenly declared her fine art career a catastrophe. She’d recently illustrated the children’s book Suzuki Beane, a charming Beatnik spin on Eloise, written by her friend and sometime lover Sandra Scoppettone, and it was to children’s literature that Louise turned again. She wrote to her lifelong friend the poet James Merrill to tell him about her new book project: “It is called Harriet the Spy and is about a nasty little girl who keeps a notebook on all her friends.”
Turn the Page: 15 Editors’ Picks for Fall/Winter 2020
