George MacDonald

George MacDonald was a Scottish poet, fantasy and children’s novelist, and church minister, most famous for his novels Lilith and Phantastes, and his children’s novel The Princess and the Goblin. Born in Huntly in 1824 to a farming family, his Calvinist upbringing strongly influenced his later writings and sermons.

He attended the chemistry and natural philosophy at the University of Aberdeen and then studied at Highbury College, and was appointed pastor of the Trinity Congregational Church in the West Sussex town of Arundel. His sermons were not popular with Church leaders, however, and his pay was cut. In 1860 he converted to Anglicism. Later he taught at the University of London, and took a lecture tour to the United States in the early 1870s.

His first novel, Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women was published in 1858, was not a commercial success, but has been credited with influencing later fantasy writers such as C.S. Lewis and Mark Twain, and indeed MacDonald’s own later novel Lilith, published in 1895. Lilith was selected as one of The List’s 100 greatest Scottish novels in 2005.

As his early fantasies did not make money, MacDonald also wrote a number of ‘straight novels’ set in the Scottish countryside, with books such as David Elginbroad and Alec Forbes, both written in the 1860s. His most successful children’s novel The Princess and the Goblin was first published in 1872 and has been adopted for film several times. Collections of his sermons were published throughout the late 19th century.

George MacDonald died in Surrey in 1905, aged 80, after a lifetime of poor health. With his wife Louise he had 11 children; his son Greville MacDonald became a writer himself.