George MacDonald (1824-1905) was a Scottish novelist, poet, and Christian minister whose fairy tales and fantasies inspired such later luminaries as J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, and Neil Gaiman.  His best-remembered works include At the Back of the North Wind (1871), The Princess and the Goblin (1872), and Lilith (1895).