- MacDONALD, George
- (1824-1905)Scottish author and editor, noted for his fairy tales. His former occupation as a clergyman was reflected in his allegorical fantasies, Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women (1858) and Lilith (1895; rev 1924), the latter work being his closest to sf. Based onthe premise that an infinite number of three-dimensional universes can exist in a four-dimensional frame (PARALLEL WORLDS), Lilith draws heavily from the Talmud in its enigmatic description of a search, set in both this Universe and another, for the self. It compares interestingly with DavidLINDSAY's A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS (1920).After GM's death, his son Greville wrote three fantasy novels as well as the biographical George MacDonald and his Wife (1924).JE/JCOther works: Adela Cathcart (coll 1864; rev 1882 to exclude fantasy stories); The Portent: A Story of the Inner Vision of the Highlanders, Commonly Called the Second Sight (1864; rev as coll vt The Portent and Other Stories 1909; original novel vt Lady of the Mansion1983 US); Dealings with the Fairies (1867); At the Back of the North Wind (1870), The Princess and the Goblin (1871 US) and The Princess and Curdie (1882 US), a series for children; Works of Fancy and Imagination (10 vols 1871); The Wise Woman: A Parable (1875; vt A Double Story 1876 US; vt Princess Rosamund US; vt The Lost Princess 1895 UK); The Flight of the Shadow (1891); The Fairy Tales of George MacDonald (coll in 5 vols 1904); Fairy Tales (1920); The Light Princess (coll 1961) ed Roger Lancelyn GREEN; Evenor (coll 1972) ed Lin CARTER; Visionary Novels: Lilith; Phantastes (omni 1954 US; vt Phantastes; and Lilith 1962 UK); The Gifts of the Child Christ: Fairy Tales and Stories for the Childlike (coll in 2 vols; 1973 US) ed Glenn Edward Sadler; The Gold Key and The Green Life (anth 1986), the second story being by Fiona Macleod (pseudonym of WilliamSharp (1824-1905); The Day Boy and the Night Girl (1988 chap); Little Daylight (1988 chap).About the author: There is a mass of critical work on GM. Of particular genre interest is The Renaissance of Wonder in Children's Literature (1977; vt Renaissance of Wonder: The Fantasy Worlds of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, George MacDonald, E. Nesbit and Others 1980 US) by Marion Lochhead (1902-1985).
Science Fiction and Fantasy Encyclopedia. Academic. 2011.