Rachel Field's & Dorothy Lathrop's Hitty
The REAL Hitty (and yes, she does exist - photo above by Bill Fifer) was found after having gone missing on one of her adventures. She lives in the Stockbridge, MA library museum. She's there with all her belongings and clothing, provided by her owners.
The story goes that Rachel, a writer, and Dorothy, an illustrator, both spotted Hitty living in the window of an antique shop. Each wanted her, but could not afford her, and neither was aware of the other's interest. That is, until one night after they had dinner together and one said, "let's go visit Hitty." Since someone had carefully emboridered her name in red on her little chemise, lest she be off on one of her adventures where she was not known, everyone would always know her name.
One day, a thought occurred: the two women might pool their money to ransom Hitty from her window and thus share in her ownership. So they did, and the idea for an illustrated story was born. Hitty: Her First Hundred Years was published in 1929 and won the Newbery Award for Children's Literature in 1930. The book is still in print today and beloved by many.
The story goes that Rachel, a writer, and Dorothy, an illustrator, both spotted Hitty living in the window of an antique shop. Each wanted her, but could not afford her, and neither was aware of the other's interest. That is, until one night after they had dinner together and one said, "let's go visit Hitty." Since someone had carefully emboridered her name in red on her little chemise, lest she be off on one of her adventures where she was not known, everyone would always know her name.
One day, a thought occurred: the two women might pool their money to ransom Hitty from her window and thus share in her ownership. So they did, and the idea for an illustrated story was born. Hitty: Her First Hundred Years was published in 1929 and won the Newbery Award for Children's Literature in 1930. The book is still in print today and beloved by many.
Real Hitty at the Stockbridge event, 2006
There are many online groups devoted to Hitty, one of the largest being the Yahoo group, HittyGirls. This picture was taken by Julie Old Crow, owner of the HittyGirls group, at a Stockbridge, MA event where Hitty resides. Information and photos of the Real Hitty at this event (and at a more recent one) as well as how to join the Yahoo HittyGirls group are available on the HittyGirls website, www.HittyGirls.com.
I recently visited Hitty at the library where she sits on her bench in a glass case and waits patiently for visitors to come and be amazed by her: I was.
