George MacDonald is Scotland's favorite children's author. Born on December 10, 1824, he entered the university at Aberdeen when he was 16 and trained to be a Congregational minister at Highbury College. Although his first congregation asked him to resign because they didn't like his sermons, he had found his calling as a writer. Two years later, he published his first volume of fantasy, Phantastes. He and his wife had eleven children, several of whom encouraged Lewis Carroll to publish his writing. His work was an influence on the Inklings, a writing group which included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R.Tolkien. The books he wrote for children are still read to this day: The Princess and Curdie, At the Back of the North Wind, and The Princess and the Goblin. MacDonald died in 1905 and was buried in Italy, where his family had spent a great deal of time due to MacDonald's delicate health.

—Vicki Palmquist