MacDonald, George
MacDonald, George (1824–1905),Scottish author of many notable fantasies. He was born in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, where his family attended the Missionary Kirk, whose Calvinistic teaching MacDonald was later to discard, though traces of this can be found in the retribution theme in a few of his children's stories, notably The Wise Woman (1875).
His mother died when he was 8, and, significantly, his fantasy works were to be peopled with beautiful women who appear to symbolize a semi‐divine motherhood. Educated at King's College, Aberdeen, where he was already regarded as a visionary, he was, through family money troubles, obliged to spend one of his undergraduate years ‘in a nobleman's mansion’ cataloguing the library. This has never been identified, but it is probable that it was Thurso Castle, owned by Sir George Sinclair, whose father had been a German scholar, educated at Göttingen, and that it was here that...
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