Babies in Literature: Harriet the Spy

Ron Mueck's sculpture. Art imitating literature?

In Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy, one of the families Harriet spies on is the Robinsons, a very boring couple who like to buy things and show them off. On this particular day, Harriet arrives just as the Robinsons are accepting a delivery and unpacking it:

"There! There!" screamed Mrs. Robinson. And there indeed was the strangest thing Harriet had ever seen. It was an enormous, but enormous--perhaps six feet high--wooden sculpture of a fat, petulant, rather unattractive baby. The baby wore a baby cap, huge white dress, and baby booties. The head was completely round and carved out of butcher block so that it resembled a beautifully grained newel post with a face carved in it. The baby sat on its diapered bottom, feet straight out ahead, and fat arms curving into fatter hands which held, surprisingly, a tiny mother. Harriet stared.

Mrs Robinson exclaimed with her hand to her heart, "She is a genius."