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Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy Hardcover – December 1, 2020

by Leslie Brody (Author)

4.5 120 ratings

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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.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Expansive and revealing… Leslie Brody assembles the clues to the personal history that shaped Fitzhugh’s conscience and creative convictions. Brody, a biographer and playwright who adapted “Harriet the Spy” for the stage in 1988, has pored through correspondence, memoirs and court documents, and conducted dozens of interviews to reveal the trail that Fitzhugh left unmarked.”―New York Times

“Highly enjoyable… Ms. Brody’s engaging biography reminds us how fragile and serendipitous artistic beginnings can be, yet how mighty and enduring their endings.”―Wall Street Journal

“A study that reveals the quiet subversiveness of Harriet the Spy and adds sharp political potency to the book’s seemingly innocent play with questions of secrecy and surveillance.” ―The New Republic

“Brody’s project is to rescue Fitzhugh from the morass of kid lit and memorialize her as an unsung queer, feminist exemplar.”―New Yorker

“In this sad, evocative biography, it is Fitzhugh’s friends who share her truths, so the story can remain true to her.”―Washington Post

“A portrait of a complicated, messy, brilliant artist — who would have thrilled Harriet herself.”―New York Post

“In ‘Sometimes You Have to Lie’, an engrossing and carefully researched biography of Louise Fitzhugh, Leslie Brody vibrantly tells the story of the complicated and ultimately triumphant life of the author of “Harriet the Spy.” She presents a full portrait of Fitzhugh, previously a shadowy figure at best, and places her firmly in the top rank of children’s book creators."―Boston Globe

“[Louise Fitzhugh] remains a mystery to this day, but Leslie Brody’s new book works to pull back the curtain on Fitzhugh’s sensational life.”―Bustle

“Leslie Brody paints a portrait of Fitzhugh that’s almost as indelible as Harriet herself…deeply endearing introduction to the woman who gave the American canon one of its icons.”―Vox

“In this lively, compassionate biography of Louise Fitzhugh, author of the children’s instant-classic ‘Harriet the Spy’ series from the 1960s, Leslie Brody sheds light on the remarkable woman behind the books.”―Christian Science Monitor

“It turns out many of the roots of Harriet’s privileged existence can be found in the life of her creator, Louise Fitzhugh. Leslie Brody’s new biography, Sometimes You Have To Lie (a piece of Ole Golly dialogue), delves deep into the writer’s fascinating past.”―The A.V. Club

“’Sometimes You Have to Lie’ is the fascinating story of the long-hidden truth about the life of the queer author of an iconic children’s book. Harriet wouldn’t be able to put it down.”―Washington Blade

“Brody’s book peeks behind the curtain at Fitzhugh’s hidden life, her writing, and her struggle to express her individuality during a time of turbulent social and cultural change.”―BookTrib

"I've never been more intensely curious about a writer's life, nor more thwarted in finding anything out about that life, than I have been in the case of Louise Fitzhugh. At some point I deduced that the very lack of information likely answered my most burning question—was she a lesbian? But that was little preparation for the true story. What a lesbian! And what a life! Leslie Brody serves up an almost unbearably gratifying tale in her much-anticipated biography, Sometimes You Have To Lie. Southern Gothic childhood. Escape to Greenwich Village and Europe. Famous friends. String of lovers. Cross-dressing. Publishing gossip. Even a lost manuscript. I was especially pleased to learn so much about the painting career of this groundbreaking writer who considered herself just as much a visual artist. I only wish Brody's book, and Fitzhugh's life, had been much, much longer."― Alison Bechdel,author of Fun Home

"Harriet the Spy was a tough, smart, vulnerable, funny, unsentimental, and deeply observant little kid who was a born writer, much like her creator, the wonderful Louise Fitzhugh. She was a heroine unlike any children's book heroine who preceded her. If you loved Harriet, if you still think about her from time to time, you will love this book."― RozChast, author of Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

"It has taken a really good spy, in Leslie Brody, to come up with the story we've been waiting to get our hands on for all our reading lifetimes. Sometimes You Have to Lie does the greatest honor to Louise Fitzhugh and her brilliant avatar, Harriet the Spy: It tells the truth."―Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and Egg & Spoon

"With clear-eyed compassion, Leslie Brody pulls back the curtain to reveal the complex, delicate, fierce woman whose imagination created our beloved Harriet the Spy, and so much more. I was fascinated and moved by Louise Fitzhugh's struggles to be and do and have all she desired, and I feel richer for the experience of getting to know her."―Therese Anne Fowler, author of Z:A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald

"What a role model Harriet the Spy was for a kid: whip-smart, curious, and bold. It turns out her creator, Louise Fitzhugh, was just as daring. Sometimes You Have to Lie is a rollicking and insightful biography about a modern literary heroine."―Anne Zimmerman, author of An Extravagant Hunger: The Passionate Years of M.F.K. Fisher

"When you read Sometimes You Have to Lie, you become like Harriet, spying on Louise Fitzhugh. This wonderfully written biography lets readers walk in Louise's footsteps, as if taking notes on countless details of her complicated, rich life."― Jack Gantos, author of the Rotten Ralph series

About the Author

Leslie Brody is a biographer, playwright, and professor of creative writing. She adapted Harriet the Spy for the stage in 1988 and is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts award and a PEN America award for creative nonfiction. She has been an on-staff book columnist for Elle magazine. She lives in Redlands, California.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Seal Press (December 1, 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1580057691
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1580057691
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.23 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.55 x 1.45 x 10.15 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #206,496 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #297 in Censorship & Politics
- #848 in Author Biographies
- #2,349 in Women's Biographies

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4.5 120 ratings

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John D. Cofield

Harriet's "Mom"

Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2021

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Back in the spring of 1968 when I was an 11 year old in fifth grade my elementary school held a book fair. Among the books offered for sale was a paperback with a cover showing a determined looking girl striding along a sidewalk carrying a notebook. The title was Harriet The Spy, and ordinarily I would have passed it by because I was a boy who didn't care much for "girl books." But something made me pick it up and leaf through it, and I quickly realized that this was a book I had to read. I read it many times over that summer, and in the fall when I entered 6th grade I made sure I carried a notebook around with me to write down my observations about life. As a brighter than average kid who was already feeling alienated from many of my classmates and developing suspicions that the adults in my life weren't as infallible and all knowing as they would have me believe, Harriet was an excellent friend to have, along with Sport, Janie, and even Beth Ellen (whom I got to know better when I read Harriet The Spy's sequel The Long Secret.) Harriet The Spy remains one of the books I consider to have had a great and positive influence on my life. Years later on one of my visits to New York City I spent a day wandering the Upper East Side visiting 88th Street, East End Avenue, and Carl Schurz Park just so I could feel that I had spent some time in Harriet's neighborhood.

So who was Louise Fitzhugh, Harriet's creator? In this fine biography Leslie Brody reveals that she was born into a wealthy but extremely dysfunctional family in Memphis, Tennessee in 1928. Given material comforts but neglected emotionally, Fitzhugh learned to depend on her friends rather than her family for support at an early age. She attended college in Memphis, but then made her way to New York City and Europe, where she was part of bohemian culture. She had a number of love affairs with both men and women, eventually living openly as a lesbian at a time when that was difficult if not actually illegal, enjoyed a great career as an artist, and in her last decade of life produced Harriet The Spy and her friends.

I really enjoyed Sometimes You Have To Lie because it told me so much about Fitzhugh and answered so many questions I had about Harriet and her world. I will always have a special fondness for Louise Fitzhugh, and I'm grateful to Leslie Brody for revealing her rich, if often chaotic, life to me.

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Amazon Customer

fascinating look at "Harriet's" creator

Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2021

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As a preteen, the book "Harriet the Spy" was among my favorites. It was fascinating to read about the author, Louise Fitzhugh, about whom I knew little. Her upbringing and later life in NY are described succinctly, and readers also got a peek at her artwork from her NYC years. Excellent read.

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Jim Provenzano

‘Harriet the Spy’ author’s revelatory biography

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2021

Thousands of teenage aspiring writers found inspiration from the notebook-scribbling eleven-year-old girl in the best-selling 1964 novel Harriet the Spy. Some, myself included, became especially aware of the irascible protagonist’s gender-nonconforming attire and demeanor. But only years later did fans discover that the book’s author, Louise Fitzhugh, was a lesbian.

In a thoroughly researched and utterly fascinating biography, Sometime You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy, Leslie Brody shares intimate details of the writer’s sometimes fabulous, sometimes troubled life.

Like nearly all biographies, Brody begins with her subject’s family, an affluent Memphis-based lineage before her birth in 1928. But Fitzhugh had no ordinary heritage. When she was an infant, her parents’ contentious divorce proceedings rivaled the Scopes ‘Monkey’ trail, and the days in the packed courthouse made newspaper headlines for weeks.

This all later left a young Fitzhugh bereft, particularly when her father lied that her mother had died. Dissolute and determined to escape the tainted traditions of her family and the antiquated debutante rites other young women took on, Fitzhugh impulsively eloped with a man before the marriage was abruptly annulled.

She took to more rebellious behavior, and even a love affair with Amelia Brent, a young woman whose premature death would later inspire a lesbian-themed unfinished novel, Mimi.

The inspiration for what would later become the fictional Harriet’s obsession may have begun when Fitzhugh interned at the local newspaper, filing old articles, including reports of her own family, specifically her estranged mother (a later reunion would prove to be unsettling).

After studies at Bard College, Fitzhugh’s eventual trek north to New York City led her to the West Village’s bohemian artist circles, where she befriended authors Maurice Sendak and Loraine Hansberry.

After a few initial projects, including Suzuki Beane, an illustrated children’s book that took on Beatnik life, and the anti-war-themed Bang, Bang You’re Dead (with Sandra Scoppettone), Fitzhugh struggled with a few play scripts, one of which, to one agent, too closely resembled her dread-filled Southern family life.

Fitzhugh was also an accomplished visual artist who had dreams of prominent gallery exhibitions, which didn’t work out. Not taking well to criticism, she travelled to Italy and France (alone, when her then-girlfriend decided to attend college instead) and hung out with other artistic exiles.

Returning to New York, the frustrated artist became determined to make her mark amid the tumultuous early 1960s. Brody details the development of Fitzhugh’s novel Harriet the Spy and how it initially was received with skepticism by her agent and editor. No other children’s book featured such a main character, whose copiously-penned notebooks eventually get her in trouble with her schoolmates. But readers enjoyed Harriet’s uniquely unfeminine style and curious nature.

Brody details the difficulties Fitzhugh faced from the publishing industry, which, at the time, including few women editors, often treated women authors with condescension.

To fully enjoy this extensive biography, required re-reading of Harriet the Spy –and even possibly the two affable yet less popular sequels based on other characters (Sport was published posthumously)– would be essential. Brody makes multiple comparisons between Harriet as a character and Fitzhugh’s actual demeanor, including her alternately “spritely” and “irascible” behavior toward others.

Despite the book’s eventual success, Fitzhugh refused to attend author events or readings. Her publisher’s marketing remained oblique in portraying Fitzhugh’s life, and she gave very few interviews. At one point, her publisher’s marketing campaigns failed to keep up with the public’s desire for the book.

Rereading Harriet the Spy through the context of this fascinating biography reveals much more adult themes in the sometimes critiqued novel, which at one point in a later printing was rejected by national school library buyers, despite being a best-seller in the public market.

Having lived her adult life out of the closet, Fitzhugh seemed to understood the saying from Harriet’s fictional nanny, Ole Golly; “sometimes you have to lie.” While this could be applied to Fitzhugh’s lesbianism, Ole Golly followed that with “But to yourself you must always tell the truth.”

In an age before online anything, Fitzhugh managed to live openly until her death in 1974, eight days before the publication of her then-third novel, Nobody's Family Is Going To Change.

At fault in the big lie, the author’s estate, however, was protective of their property and the reputation of the works by hiding details of Fitzhugh’s private life. It’s a testament to Brody’s Harriet-like investigative journalism that reveals so many personal details through letters and other documents. Brody has created a flowing, fascinating story about a woman who defied traditions to create a classic modern work of literature that thoroughly broke the mold.

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Alan

Worth reading

Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2022

Verified Purchase

I loved Harriet The Spy as a kid so of course I needed to read this biography. Louise Fitzhugh had an interesting life! The book is good enough that I'll keep it on my shelf rather than give it away but it kind of lacks the life lessons or remarkable events that I normally love in biographies. Perhaps there wasn't enough source material for that.

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Augusta Wind

fascinating look into pre Stonewall gay life

Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2021

Everyone knew the author Louise Fitzhugh was gay. She was an out of the closet butch dyke who wore men’s clothes. Yet when she died in 1974 after a stroke, her life partner was not allowed into the intensive care unit and there was no mention of her being queer at her large memorial service. As a lesbian and children’s book author, she was often pressured to disguise her true identity.

Leslie Brody’s new biography “Sometimes You Have to Lie: the Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy”, is a fascinating look into pre-Stonewall gay life and the bohemian art world of Greenwich Village in the 60s. Fitzhugh escaped her upper class upbringing in segregated Memphis and came to New York to be a painter but made her mark as the author of a popular children’s book, first published in 1964. Young readers loved Harriet, a feisty girl who defied authority and kept a notebook on her friends.

This biography is well written and well researched, showing the difficulty of being openly lesbian at this time period. Louise drank too much, went through dyke drama with lovers and girl friends. And died too soon.

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