George MacDonald

Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. George MacDonald was born in Aberdeenshire in 1824. He was one of the six sons of a prosperous weaver. His mother died when he was eight, and his father married again. His upbringing was strict, but he enjoyed living in the country. His book "Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood," about a family of motherless boys living in Scotland, probably reflects some of his childhood experiences. He went to Aberdeen University, and spent a few years as a congregational minister before he gave his time entirely to writing. He and his wife had eleven children, and they lived for a while in a house at Hammersmith, where William Morris lived afterwards. Lewis Carroll was among their family friends. George MacDonald wrote at least fifty books. Most of his novels and poems are hardly remembered now, but two of his grown-up fairy tales, "Phantostes" and "Lilith," which were published in 1858 and 1895, are still well known. He is most famous, however, for his children's books, which include "The Light Princess and Other Stories," published in 1867, and "At the Back of the North Wind," in 1870. "The Princess and the Goblin" appeared in 1871, and its sequel. "The Princess and Curdie," was first published in book form in 1882. George MacDonald died in 1905. (Taken from The Princess and Curdie. Puffin, 1971 edition)