Later, Fitzhugh learned that her mother, who was denied custody and visitation rights, was alive. For years, she was told that her mother had died. She was raised by her father Millsaps Fitzhugh and her eccentric, but loving grandmother. Her parents, who met and wed quickly in a “jazz age marriage,” divorced when she was a baby.
She was fabulously queer!įitzhugh was born in Memphis, Tenn. She’s inspired thousands of hetero and queer readers to become spies and rebels (writers).Īs it so often is with LGBTQ artists and writers (even creators of classics), I had no idea that Louise Fitzhugh, who lived from 1928 to 1974, was queer. Harriet is the queer love-child of Jo March and Holden Caulfield.
Harriet is fabulously “nasty!” She wears jeans, carries a tool belt on her waist and says “I’ll be damned if I’ll go to dancing school!” Harriet, notebook in hand, soon begins to “spy” on everyone – from her neighbors to her schoolmates.Īs Fitzhugh, who was queer, wrote to her friend, gay poet James Merrill, Harriet is a “nasty little girl who keeps a notebook on all her friends.” Her nanny, Ole Golly, tells her that writers take notes on people. Harriet, a sassy New York City kid, is a writer. I discovered “Harriet the Spy” only recently as I read “Sometimes You Have to Lie.” What a great find! Brody was hired in 1988 to write an adaptation of “Harriet the Spy” for the Minneapolis Children’s Theatre Company. “Harriet the Spy,” since its publication in 1964, has been enjoyed by generations of kids and adults.
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