MacDonald, George

(1824-1905)

   Born at Huntly, Aberdeenshire, he graduated M.A. from King's College, Aberdeen, in 1845, and in 1868 his university made him honorary doctor of laws. Ordained as a Congregational minister in 1850, he then became a free-lance preacher and lecturer and made literature his profession following the success of his poetic tragedy, Within and Without (1855). He lived mostly in London, but spent long spells in Bordighera, Italy. In 1872 he lectured to enthusiastic audience in America. His ashes were buried in the English cemetery at Bordighera. He was a novelist, hymn writer and author of children's stories, such as At the Back of the North Wind (1871), Princess and the Goblin (1872) and The Princess and Curdie (1873). Some of his other poetry publications: Poems, 1857. The Disciple and Other Poems, 1867. A Threefold Cord: Poems by Three Friends, 1883. Scotch Songs and Ballads, 1893. Some of his poems: "A Baby-Sermon," "A Christmas Carol," "At Aberdeen," "Diary of an Old Soul," "Father's Hymn for the Mother to Sing," "The Preacher's Prayer," "The Sheep and the Goat," "The Wind and the Moon."

   Sources: A Sacrifice of Praise: An Anthology of Christian Poetry in English from Caedmon to the Mid-Twentieth Century. James H. Trott, ed. Cumberland House Publishing, 1999. Biography of George Macdonald. The Victorian Web (http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/gm/bio.html). Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Cyber Hymnal (http://www.cyberhymnal.org/index.htm). The Faber Book of Comic Verse. Michael Roberts and Janet Adam Smith, eds. Faber and Faber, 1978. The Moon is Shining Bright as Day: An Antholog y of Good-humoured Verse. Ogden Nash, ed. J.B. Lippincott, 1953. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Poetical Works of George MacDonald (2 vols). IndyPublishing.com, U.S., 2005. The Treasury of Christian Poetry. Lorraine Eitel, ed. Fleming H. Revell, 1982. Who Has Seen the Wind? An Illustrated Collection of Poetry for Young People. Kathryn Sky-Peck, ed. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1991.