Sometimes You Have to Lie
Book Feature - SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO LIE: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy by Leslie Brody
HBL Note: There are a few books from my childhood that stuck with me, one of them is Harriet the Spy. I read (and re-read) the series about Harriet M. Welsch until the pages of my book wore thin. Leslie Brody’s latest book, Sometimes You Have to Lie, is about the author of the beloved children’s book, Louise Fitzhugh. I am thrilled to be the first stop on her blog tour over the next week and a half. Scroll down to read more and to see the other blogs she’ll be featured.
Book Feature - SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO LIE: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy by Leslie Brody
From the publisher:
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.
Book Feature - SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO LIE: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy by Leslie Brody
