Originally published in Publishers Weekly, August 7, /2000, Vol. 247 Issue 32, p26
With her movie debut four years ago, Harriet M. Welsch, the 11-year-old would-be writer featured in Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy series, has by now been in just about every format. After starting off life in a Harper & Row hardcover in 1964 and becoming a Dell/Yearling paperback the following year, she had a decade-long run in a HarperTrophy paperback edition beginning in 1989. Now Harriet is poised to return to Delacorte this fall after several months when she's been unavailable. "[By contract] Harper had to stop selling the book late this spring," explained Phyllis Wender, who represents Fitzhugh's estate (the author died in 1974).
"I think of it as Harriet coming home," commented Craig Virden, president and publisher of Random House Children's Books. A late addition to Random's fall list, Harriet the Spy will be reissued in hardcover this October, with Fitzhugh's original artwork. In the spring, Random will publish hardcover editions of both sequels--The Long Secret and Sport--under the Delacorte imprint, along with a Yearling paperback edition of Harriet the Spy.
In addition, Random is in the midst of choosing a writer to create two more books for the series. The first spin-off will be published in fall 2001. As Virden sees it, "Harriet was ahead of her time. The sequels are a way to capitalize on that '60s/'70s girl who will appeal to girls in the 2000s."
For booksellers, the fact that Harriet is coming back in print is good news. At Koen Book Distributors, where the book has been out-of-stock since late July, "Harriet the Spy sells very strongly," said children's book buyer Lisa Dugan. "It's a classic, and after not having it available for a couple of months, people will go crazy when they do get it. It's one of every children's bookseller's favorite books, one they always carry."
For Leo Landry, manager of the Children's Bookshop in Brookline, Mass., a book going out-of-stock when it changes publishers "happens every now and then, but it's never really a problem. It's only a problem if a publisher runs out of a newer book, like the new Jan Brett. We sell a certain amount of Harriet the Spy a year and we keep a certain amount on hand."
Although Delacorte has not yet finalized its marketing plans, Virden noted that "the Harriet promotion will consist of a long program over the course of 24 months."