Rev George MacDonald

Descended from the Clan MacDonald of Glen Coe
and a direct descendant of one of the families that suffered in the massacre of 1692.

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/LHH3-5C7

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Macdonald-4628

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/26866176/george-macdonald

Author. Born in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, the son of a farmer, he studied at the University of Aberdeen, moved to London and worked as a tutor, then studied at Highbury College in North London to become a Congregational minister. In 1851 he married Louisa Powell (1822-1902), with whom he was to have six sons and five daughters. From 1850 to 1853, he was the Congregational minister at Arundel in Sussex, but resigned to concentrate on literature. In 1855, he published his first book, a poetic drama entitled "Within and Without". He went on to produce many poems, plays and novels, many of which are concerned with fantasy and many of which were written for children. Among his best-known novels are: "Phantasies"; "The Princess and the Goblin"; "At the Back of the North Wind"; and "Lydia". He appears as a character in C.S. Lewis's "The Great Divorce"; indeed, Lewis once remarked that he regarded MacDonald as being "the Master." From 1881, he lived at the Casa Coraggio, near Bordighera in Northern Italy; after Louisa's death, however, he returned to England, to live in a house at Haslemere in Surrey, which had been built by his eldest son. He died in the nearby town of Ashstead, at the home of his youngest daughter, was cremated in Woking, and his ashes were buried in Bordighera. There is a memorial to him in the churchyard at Drumblade, near Huntly. His grandson, Philip MacDonald (1900-1980) was the author of "The List of Adrian Messenger", which was filmed by John Huston.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_MacDonald

George MacDonald (10 December 1824 – 18 September 1905) 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. His writings have been cited as a major literary influence by many notable authors, including W. H. Auden, J. M. Barrie, Lord Dunsany, Hope Mirrlees, Robert E. Howard, L. Frank Baum, T.H. White, Lloyd Alexander, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien,[1] Walter de la Mare,[2] E. Nesbit, Peter S. Beagle, Neil Gaiman and Madeleine L'Engle.[1] C. S. Lewis wrote that he regarded MacDonald as his "master": "Picking up a copy of Phantastes one day at a train-station bookstall, I began to read. A few hours later", said Lewis, "I knew that I had crossed a great frontier." G. K. Chesterton cited The Princess and the Goblin as a book that had "made a difference to my whole existence".[3]

Elizabeth Yates wrote of Sir Gibbie, "It moved me the way books did when, as a child, the great gates of literature began to open and first encounters with noble thoughts and utterances were unspeakably thrilling."[4]