Mary De Morgan (24 February 1850 – 1907) was an English writer and the author of three volumes of fairytales: On A Pincushion (1877); The Necklace of Princess Fiorimonde (1880); and The Windfairies (1900). These volumes appeared together in the collection The Necklace of Princess Fiorimonde – The Complete Fairy Stories of Mary de Morgan, published by Victor Gollancz Ltd in 1963, with an introduction by Roger Lancelyn Green. Though De Morgan is one of the lesser known authors of literary fairytales, her works, heavily influenced by Hans Christian Andersen, are remarkable in deviating from the fairytale norm – often not including a happy ending, or not having the protagonist gain wealth or power (rather procuring the wisdom of recognising the value of living without these things); and in the satirical element of political comment in her works. According to the Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folk Tales and Fairy Tales, the fairytales of Mary de Morgan played a "comprehensive and central role" in her era in the evolution of the literary fairytale. Her story, The Toy Princess, was featured on the BBC children's TV show Jackanory in 1966, and the same story featured on Jackanory Playhouse in 1981. It has been suggested that her gender plays a part in her relative obscurity, and that she is deserving of far more acclaim. Her brother, potter, tile designer and novelist William de Morgan, illustrated her first volume.

George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. He was educated at Aberdeen University and after a short and stormy career as a minister at Arundel, where his unorthodox views led to his dismissal, he turned to fiction as a means of earning a living. He wrote over 50 books. Known particularly for his poignant fairy tales and fantasy novels, MacDonald inspired many authors, such as G.K. Chesterton, W. H. Auden, J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Madeleine L'Engle. 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." 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." Even Mark Twain, who initially disliked MacDonald, became friends with him, and there is some evidence that Twain was influenced by MacDonald. For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George\_M...

Edith Nesbit (married name Edith Bland; 15 August 1858 – 4 May 1924) was an English author and poet; she published her books for children under the name of E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television. She was also a political activist and co-founded the Fabian Society, a socialist organisation later connected to the Labour Party. Edith Nesbit was born in Kennington, Surrey, the daughter of agricultural chemist and schoolmaster John Collis Nesbit. The death of her father when she was four and the continuing ill health of her sister meant that Nesbit had a transitory childhood, her family moving across Europe in search of healthy climates only to return to England for financial reasons. Nesbit therefore spent her childhood attaining an education from whatever sources were available—local grammars, the occasional boarding school but mainly through reading. At 17 her family finally settled in London and aged 19, Nesbit met Hubert Bland, a political activist and writer. They became lovers and when Nesbit found she was pregnant they became engaged, marrying in April 1880. After this scandalous (for Victorian society) beginning, the marriage would be an unconventional one. Initially, the couple lived separately—Nesbit with her family and Bland with his mother and her live-in companion Maggie Doran. Initially, Edith Nesbit books were novels meant for adults, including The Prophet's Mantle (1885) and The Marden Mystery (1896) about the early days of the socialist movement. Written under the pen name of her third child 'Fabian Bland', these books were not successful. Nesbit generated an income for the family by lecturing around the country on socialism and through her journalism (she was editor of the Fabian Society's journal, Today). In 1899 she had published The Adventures of the Treasure Seekers to great acclaim.

Born in 1869, in London, Evelyn Sharp was the daughter of slate merchant James Sharp, and the sister of Cecil Sharp, who would later gain fame as a folksong collector, and leader of the folkdance revival. She was educated at Strathallan House, and - despite passing the Cambridge Higher Local Examination in history - at a finishing school in Paris. Against the wishes of her family, Sharp moved to London in 1894, where she became a journalist and an author, publishing a number of books for both children and adults. A member of the Women's Industrial Council and the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, as well as the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), Sharp was a prominent activist in the Women's Suffrage movement, arrested twice, and once going on hunger strike. She edited the Votes for Women suffrage journal, and also had strong pacifist views. Sharp married her long-time friend and lover, Henry Nevinson, in 1933, and continued to work for the social causes in which she believed. She died in 1955.