Maya Gold, like Annie Smith, is a woman of many identities. In some of her other lives, she has been an award-winning screenwriter, novelist, editor, and occasional planter of Douglas firs. But her favorite role is that of proud mother to ten-year-old author and deep-dyed Harriet fan Sophia M. Gold. They live in New York.

Louise Fitzhugh (1928–1974) was born in Memphis, Tennessee. She attended Bard College, studied art in Italy and France, and continued her studies in New York at the Art Students League and at Cooper Union. Her books Harriet the Spy, The Long Secret, and Sport have been acclaimed as milestones of children’s literature. These classics delight readers year after year.