George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet and Christian minister. He was a pioneering figure in the field of fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow writer Lewis Carroll. In addition to his fairy tales, MacDonald wrote several works on Christian apologetics.
His writings have been cited as a major literary influence by many notable authors including W. H. Auden, J. M. Barrie, L. Frank Baum, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Walter de la Mare, or E. Nesbit. MacDonald was also friends with John Ruskin and, while in America, with Longfellow and Walt Whitman.
George MacDonald's best-known works are Phantastes, The Princess and the Goblin, At the Back of the North Wind, and Lilith (1895), all fantasy novels, and fairy tales such as "The Light Princess", "The Golden Key", and "The Wise Woman". "I write, not for children," he wrote, "but for the child-like, whether they be of five, or fifty, or seventy-five."
(source: wikipedia)