20 January 2021
Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy
In this inspiring biography, discover the true story of Harriet the Spy author Louise Fitzhugh -- and learn about the woman behind one of literature's most beloved heroines.
Harriet the Spy, first published in 1964, has mesmerized generations of readers and launched a million diarists. Its beloved antiheroine, Harriet, is erratic, unsentimental, and endearing-very much like the woman who created her, Louise Fitzhugh.
Born in 1928, Fitzhugh was raised in segregated Memphis, but she soon escaped her cloistered world and headed for New York, where her expanded milieu stretched from the lesbian bars of Greenwich Village to the art world of postwar Europe, and her circle of friends included members of the avant-garde like Maurice Sendak and Lorraine Hansberry. Fitzhugh's novels, written in an era of political defiance, are full of resistance: to authority, to conformity, and even -- radically, for a children's author -- to make-believe.
As a children's author and a lesbian, Fitzhugh was often pressured to disguise her true nature. Sometimes You Have to Lie tells the story of her hidden life and of the creation of her masterpiece, which remains long after her death as a testament to the complicated relationship between truth, secrecy, and individualism.
| Title | : | Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy |
| ISBN | : | 9781580057691 |
| Format Type | : |
Readers Also Enjoyed Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy
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The book I've been waiting for. Hello, mastermind creator of Harriet the Spy!...
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![M. [storme reads a lot]](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1601473667p2/11748214.jpg)
have never read Harriet the Spy. I just loved the 90s movie. I was so intrigued to pick up this biography, and I was not able to put it down until I was done. It’s very interesting and well done. Ev...
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I cannot rate the book because I worked on researching it for four years with author Leslie Brody. We uncovered details for it that are so fascinating I have to confess I haven't stopped researching t...
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Read as an Advanced Reading Copy so I do hope that there are photographs of Fitzhugh's art work in the final book but this is mediocre and that's being kind - really if you are going to write a biogra...
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Fun to read- part of that genre of Lesbians in the Village: Audre Lorde's Zami, and biographies of Patricia Highsmith, Bereniece Abbott and Agnes Martin. Longing for a social history that brings all t...
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An engaging biography of Louise Fitzhugh: well-researched, nicely balanced, and interesting. Brody does a nice job giving us a clear idea of what Fitzhugh was like as a child, a student, a person, as ...
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SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO LIE is an in-depth look into the life and growth of Louise Fitzhugh. Her unconventional upbringing and bohemian style life say much about why Harriet, the Spy is who she is. Ther...
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Harriet the Spy is queer canon confirmed ...
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Harriet the Spy is one of the books from my childhood which stuck with me always. When I saw Sometimes You Have to Lie I was excited to read more about the author. After I read Harriet, I began people...
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An absolutely delightful and engaging biography on the woman behind one of my favorite books, Harriet the Spy. I knew absolutely nothing about Louise Fitzhugh prior to reading this, and found her a tr...