Louise Fitzhugh’s The Long Secret

Too Long a Secret

Harriet the Spy’s sharp observations, tomato sandwiches, and composition notebooks have delighted several generations of girls. The youngest may know the 1964 novel mainly from the 1996 film or the animated Apple TV series, but few know Louise Fitzhugh’s sequel, The Long Secret, which I’m going to praise as a marvel, if not a masterpiece. I’ve searched for it electronically in the libraries of several of New York’s best girls’ schools, and not found it. But every girl should read it—and any boy interested in the lives of girls.

Alas, when it was published in 1965, The Long Secret went unrecognized as the gem it is. An unsigned Kirkus reviewer dismissed the novel as “not as good, or perhaps cohesive, a story as the first one,” and Harriet as “that spankingly (spankably?) fresh heroine,” adding, “some thought she wasn't very "nice,” and some even thought her "sick." A girl with strong opinions who preferred wearing jeans, a girl who said she’d be “damned” if she went to dancing school, she was “sick”—or at least setting “a bad example” said many parents, teachers and librarians. She wasn’t what the age considered “feminine” and adults—but not children—felt frightened.