{"id":15238,"date":"2026-03-10T11:19:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T11:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/george-macdonald-the-fantasy-writer-who-shaped-cs-lewis-j-rr-tolkien\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T05:59:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T05:59:05","slug":"george-macdonald-the-fantasy-writer-who-shaped-cs-lewis-j-rr-tolkien","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/angels-and-miracles\/miracles\/gods-grace\/george-macdonald-the-fantasy-writer-who-shaped-cs-lewis-j-rr-tolkien\/","title":{"rendered":"George MacDonald: The Fantasy Writer Who Shaped C.S. Lewis, J. R.R. Tolkien and Madeleine L\u2019Engle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One nineteenth century man defined fantasy writing for a generation of writers. W.H. Auden called him \u201cone of the most remarkable writers of the nineteenth century.\u201d G.K. Chesterton said his writing \u201cmade a difference to my whole existence.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/prayer\/quotes-verses\/10-great-cs-lewis-quotes-on-prayer\/\" onclick=\"window.open(this.href, '', 'resizable=no,status=no,location=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no,fullscreen=no,scrollbars=no,dependent=no'); return false;\">C.S. Lewis<\/a> referred to him as his \u201cmaster.\u201d He was close friends with Mark Twain and Lewis Carroll. His name? George MacDonald.<\/p>\n<p>MacDonald wrote prolifically during his life\u2014publishing more than 50 books and numerous essays. His most well-known books <em>Phantastes<\/em>, <em>The Princess and the Goblin<\/em> and <em>Lilith<\/em>, were groundbreaking works that used the medium of fantasy to explore faith and the human condition.<\/p>\n<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-ada4f91 e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"ada4f91\" data-element_type=\"container\" id=\"home-banner-stn\">\n<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-72e6e8eb elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"72e6e8eb\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Community Newsletter<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-261bcec elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"261bcec\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n<h3 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Get More Inspiration Delivered to Your Inbox<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-9787b46 elementor-widget__width-initial elementor-widget-mobile__width-inherit elementor-widget elementor-widget-wp-widget-ninja_forms_widget\" data-id=\"9787b46\" data-element_type=\"widget\" id=\"front-banner-signup\" data-widget_type=\"wp-widget-ninja_forms_widget.default\">\n<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<noscript class=\"ninja-forms-noscript-message\"><br \/>\n\tNotice: JavaScript is required for this content.<\/noscript><\/p>\n<style>\n<p>        \/* FORM STYLES *\/<\/p>\n<p>        #nf-form-5-cont {\n                                    background-color:#ffffff;\n                                                    border-radius:35px;\n-webkit-border-radius:35px;                    }\n    <\/style>\n<style>\n<p>        \/* FIELDS STYLES *\/<\/p>\n<p>        .nf-form-content .nf-field-container 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Now\",\"type\":\"submit\",\"cellcid\":\"c4725\",\"processing_label\":\"Processing\",\"container_class\":\"\",\"element_class\":\"\",\"key\":\"subscribe_now_1660636976556\",\"wrap_styles_border\":\"\",\"wrap_styles_width\":120,\"wrap_styles_margin\":0,\"wrap_styles_padding\":0,\"wrap_styles_float\":\"\",\"wrap_styles_show_advanced_css\":1,\"element_styles_border\":\"\",\"element_styles_width\":120,\"element_styles_font-size\":\"\",\"element_styles_margin\":0,\"element_styles_padding\":0,\"element_styles_float\":\"\",\"element_styles_show_advanced_css\":0,\"submit_element_hover_styles_border\":\"\",\"submit_element_hover_styles_width\":\"\",\"submit_element_hover_styles_font-size\":\"\",\"submit_element_hover_styles_margin\":\"\",\"submit_element_hover_styles_padding\":\"\",\"submit_element_hover_styles_float\":\"\",\"submit_element_hover_styles_show_advanced_css\":0,\"wrap_styles_advanced\":\"\",\"element_styles_background-color\":\"#00ab84\",\"submit_element_hover_styles_background-color\":\"#00ab84\",\"drawerDisabled\":false,\"id\":28,\"beforeField\":\"\",\"afterField\":\"\",\"value\":\"\",\"label_pos\":\"above\",\"parentType\":\"textbox\",\"element_templates\":[\"submit\",\"button\",\"input\"],\"old_classname\":\"\",\"wrap_template\":\"wrap-no-label\"}];nfForms.push(form);<\/script><br \/>\n                <script id=\"nf-tmpl-cell\" type=\"text\/template\">\n            <nf-fields><\/nf-fields>\n        <\/script><\/p>\n<p>        <script id=\"nf-tmpl-row\" type=\"text\/template\">\n            <nf-cells><\/nf-cells>\n        <\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>His books did not sell particularly well while he was alive, but later writers preserved his literary style for future generations. Here are a few authors who credited MacDonald with influencing their work:<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Lewis Carroll<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Lewis Carroll, the creator of <em>Alice in Wonderland<\/em>, was a close friend of the MacDonald family. In 1863, Carroll brought MacDonald a draft of a story he was working on about a girl named Alice who fell down a hole and went on an adventure. MacDonald gave the story to his wife and children to read\u2014they loved it. MacDonald advised Carroll to lengthen the story and encouraged him to publish it. Carroll was also a photographer and took pictures of many of MacDonald\u2019s 11 children. <\/p>\n<h3><strong>C.S. Lewis<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>MacDonald died before C.S. Lewis had heard of him, but had a direct impact on <a href=\"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/positive-living\/health-and-wellness\/better-living\/10-inspiring-cs-lewis-quotes\/\" onclick=\"window.open(this.href, '', 'resizable=no,status=no,location=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no,fullscreen=no,scrollbars=no,dependent=no'); return false;\">Lewis\u2019 faith and work<\/a>. Lewis referred to MacDonald as his story \u201cmaster.\u201d In particular, MacDonald\u2019s book <em>Phantaste<\/em>, had a huge influence on Lewis\u2019 faith. He wrote about the experience in his book, <em>Surprised by Joy<\/em>, \u201cIt is as if I were carried sleeping across the frontier, or as if I had died in the old country and could never remember how I came alive in the new.\u201d Lewis admired MacDonald so much he put together a spiritual collection of MacDonald\u2019s words called <em>George MacDonald: An Anthology<\/em>. Lewis wrote, \u201cI have never written a book in which I did not quote from him.\u201d Many readers came to know of MacDonald\u2019s work because of Lewis.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>J.R.R. Tolkien<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Although he would later criticize MacDonald\u2019s work for being too moralizing (something he also criticized in his own novel <em>The Hobbit<\/em>), scholars believe MacDonald influenced Tolkien\u2019s stories. Tolkien enjoyed some of MacDonald\u2019s fantasy stories when he was young and read <em>The Princess and the Goblin <\/em>to his children. Tolkien said that MacDonald\u2019s goblins and talking trees may have had a \u201cremote\u201d influence on the ents and orcs that inhabit his <em>Lord of the Rings <\/em>series<em>. <\/em><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Madeleine L\u2019Engle<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Madeleine L\u2019Engle\u2019s seminal work <em>A Wrinkle in Time <\/em>follows in the steps of Lewis and MacDonald by using <a href=\"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/inspiring-stories\/stories-of-faith-and-hope\/madeleine-l-engle-s-relentless-faith\/\" onclick=\"window.open(this.href, '', 'resizable=no,status=no,location=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no,fullscreen=no,scrollbars=no,dependent=no'); return false;\">using the genre of fantasy to explore faith<\/a>. She said MacDonald gave her \u201crenewed strength during times of struggle.\u201d L\u2019Engle even wrote an essay about how his work influenced her view of God called \u201cGeorge MacDonald: Nourishment for a Private World.\u201d She called MacDonald \u201cthe grandfather of us all\u2013all of us who struggle to come to terms with truth through imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>MacDonald was not well-known in his lifetime, but his faith and legacy live on in the generations of writers he inspired with his fantastical stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One nineteenth century man defined fantasy writing for a generation of writers. W.H. Auden called him \u201cone of the most remarkable writers of the nineteenth century.\u201d G.K. Chesterton said his writing \u201cmade a difference to my whole existence.\u201d C.S. Lewis referred to him as his \u201cmaster.\u201d He was close friends with Mark Twain and Lewis [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[57,15,54],"ppma_author":[467],"class_list":["post-15238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gods-grace","tag-creativity","tag-faith","tag-miracles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>George MacDonald: The Fantasy Writer Who Shaped C.S. Lewis, J. R.R. Tolkien and Madeleine L\u2019Engle - Guideposts Articles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"George MacDonald: The Fantasy Writer Who Shaped C.S. Lewis, J. R.R. Tolkien and Madeleine L\u2019Engle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One nineteenth century man defined fantasy writing for a generation of writers. W.H. Auden called him \u201cone of the most remarkable writers of the nineteenth century.\u201d G.K. Chesterton said his writing \u201cmade a difference to my whole existence.\u201d C.S. 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