Her father was an attorney and held an important position in the state government, so her family was fairly well off. Fitzhugh enjoyed reading from an early age, and she began writing her own stories at the age of eleven. During her childhood, she also learned to play the flute and developed a lifelong love of music, dancing, and tennis.
Despite growing up with many advantages, however, Fitzhugh did not consider her childhood a particularly happy time. Her bad feelings about it came, in large part, from the racial tension and bigotry she witnessed around her. As her editor and friend Ursula Nordstrom recalled in Dictionary of Literary Biography, "There were many things in Louise's well-born southern upbringing that she did not like, including her horrified remembrance of teenage friends who, after a date, decided it would be fun to go down to 'coon town' and throw rocks at the heads of young Negro boys and girls. She got out of the South as soon as she could, and concentrated on losing every single trace of her southern accent--and prejudices."
Fitzhugh attended several colleges in New York and Florida, majoring in literature. Her interest in art gradually became more important, however, so she ended up leaving school six months before earning her degree.
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