Front and back covers of unpublished Eloise Takes a Bawth

Illustration from the unpublished book

Eloise Takes a Bawth
Thompson, Kay
Drawings by Hilary Knight
With a little help from Mart Crowley
Publisher: New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2002.
Hardcover, 1st ed., 80pp.
Unpaged; Color Illustrations; 29 cm.
ISBN 0689842880
Library of Congress Catalog Number - 2002004115
Published October 22, 2002
Publish price $17.95

Front and back covers of Eloise Takes a Bawth

     Some say "Eloise Takes a Bawth" was lost at sea for forty years.  Others swear it was locked up in a credenza in Venice and dried out only recently.  Only Eloise knows the real story and she's not talking.

     There is some evidence, though that "Eloise Takes a Bawth" was born in the brain of Kay Thompson as she soaked in a hot tub in Rome after writing "Eloise in Moscow."  She summoned Hilary Knight to the Eternal City and there they worked on the "Bawth" for four years.  Their mutual pal, playwright Mart Crowley stepped in from time to time, adding sage counsel, élan, and the occasional drop of wisdom.  Even though "Eloise Takes a Bawth" was cataloged by Harper and Row in 1964, the book was never published (artistic differences, for Lord's Sake).

     In 2001, Miss Thompson's heirs decreed that "Eloise Takes a Bawth" should be brought to an eager public.  Mr. Knight set to work creating art from sketches he'd drawn forty years ago.  Mr. Crowley pieced together the many drafts of Miss Thompson's text.  And Miss Thompson's niece and nephew supervised the whole along with my colleagues at Simon & Schuster.

     Now Eloise's forty-year bawth is finally drawn.  Soak away.

                                                                           - The Editor