Phantastes: Annotated Edition - John Pennington

MacDonald, George: - George MacDonald was born in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, on December 10, 1824. He was the second son of George and Helen MacDonald, and he was raised on a farm not far from the village. In 1840, he attended King's College in Aberdeen and studied chemistry and Natural Philosophy, thinking he might continue his scientific studies in Germany. He could not, however, afford to pursue this plan, and he turned his attention to the study of theology. Despite a weak constitution (he was tubercular from an early age), he earned money by cataloguing the library in the North, and by teaching arithmetic during the winter of 1843 in the Aberdeen Central Academy. After graduation in 1845, with the degree of M.A., he accepted a tutorship in Fulham, where he hoped to earn enough money to repay his Aberdeen debts. In 1848, after some time working as a tutor, MacDonald entered Highbury College to study for the ministry. On completion, he accepted a call to Arundel, Sussex, in 1850, and he served there until 1853 when he left under suspicion of heretical views, which included the belief that heathens could enter Heaven-as well as animals. From this time, MacDonald made his living as a writer of poetry, fiction, sermons, children's books, and two influential adult fantasies. He became a well-known literary figure. Many of the leading critical journals printed long articles on his work, and he was considered one of the most popular authors of the day (London Quarterly Review, 1869). During the 1860s and 1870s, MacDonald's friends included John Ruskin, Arthur Hughes, Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), Henry Sutton, Sir Noel Paton, and F. D. Maurice, a major theologian and influence on MacDonald. In 1872, he followed Dickens and Thackeray on a lecture tour in America. He had, and continues to have, a following of enthusiastic admirers who look to him as their teacher and prophet, the most famous being C. S. Lewis. In later years he lived in Bordighera, Italy, and in 1898 he wrote a thinly disguised autobiographical story in the Sketch, Far Above Rubies. This story chronicles his early difficulties. He died in Ashstead, Surrey, on December 10, 1905.