Harriet B. Gilmour

Harriet B. Gilmour (Brooklyn, 24 November 1939 – Cornwallville, 21 June 2009) was an American writer and editor who usually published as H. B. Gilmour. Her work encompassed film novelizations, young adult fiction and children’s books, bringing together publishing, cinema and television.

She grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and spent part of her youth in Florida before returning to New York. Her publishing career began at E. P. Dutton. In 1964 she joined Bantam Books, where she worked in promotional copywriting, editing and marketing. She later worked at Scholastic before becoming a full-time writer in 1995.

Novels adapted from film screenplays form a substantial part of her bibliography. They include Saturday Night Fever (1977), Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), The Electric Horseman (1979), All That Jazz (1979), Pretty in Pink (1986) and Godzilla (1998). These books span musical and romantic drama, suspense and speculative adventure. Her original fiction includes So Long, Daddy and Ask Me If I Care.

Gilmour also wrote books featuring the Muppets and contributed to Clueless, the fiction series associated with the film and television programme. With fellow writer Randi Reisfeld, she created the ten-volume fantasy series TWitches* (2001–2004), beginning with The Power of Two. Its central characters, separated twins Camryn and Alex, discover their relationship and their magical powers. Family secrets and supernatural danger intersect with questions of friendship, belonging and identity.

The author of more than fifty books, Gilmour worked across several forms of popular storytelling. Her career illustrates both the craft of translating screen narratives into prose and the development of accessible fiction for children and teenagers. Her bibliography connects the film novelization boom of the 1970s and 1980s with the expanding market for young readers’ series fiction.