When the Writing Takes Over the Writer
Louise Fitzhugh—author of Harriet the Spy—and James Merrill—the poet—were joined by friendship, craft, and graphomania: the compulsion to write. Harriet the Spy, Louise Fitzhugh’s iconic 1964 novel, appears to be a book with an aspiring writer as its protagonist, but the writer is the vehicle for the actual main character: her notebook. Harriet’s notebook acts like the broom in “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” Goethe’s fable (made famous by Mickey Mouse in Walt Disney’s Fantasia). The apprentice animates his broom to do his dirty work, but then he can’t turn off the spel...
Source: publicbooks.org
