Johanna Spyri (; ; 12 June 1827 – 7 July 1901) was a Swiss author of novels, notably children's stories. She wrote the popular book ''

Heidi ''Heidi'' (; ) is a work of children's fiction published between 1880 and 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, originally published in two parts as ''Heidi: Her Years of Wandering and Learning'' () and ''Heidi: How She Used What She Learned'' ( ...

''. Born in Hirzel, a rural area in the canton of

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

, as a child she spent several summers near

Chur '' Chur (locally) or ; ; ; ; ; ; or ; , and . is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, town of the Switzerland, Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of the Grisons and lies in the Alpine Rhine, Grisonian Rhine Valley, where ...

in Graubünden, the setting she later would use in her novels.

Biography

In 1852, Johanna Heusser married a lawyer named Bernhard Spyri. Whilst living in the city of

she began to write about life in the country. Her first story, "A Leaf on Vrony's Grave", which deals with a woman's life of

domestic violence Domestic violence is violence that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes r ...

, was published in 1873; the following years further stories for both adults and children appeared, among them the novel ''

'', which she wrote in four weeks only. ''Heidi'' tells the story of an

orphan An orphan is a child whose parents have died, are unknown, or have permanently abandoned them. It can also refer to a child who has lost only one parent, as the Hebrew language, Hebrew translation, for example, is "fatherless". In some languages ...

girl who lives with her grandfather in the Swiss

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

, and is famous for its vivid portrayal of the landscape. Spyri's husband and her only child, both named Bernhard, both died in 1884. Alone, she devoted herself to charitable causes and wrote over fifty more stories before her death in 1901. She was interred in the family plot at the Sihlfeld-A Cemetery in Zürich. An icon in Switzerland, Spyri's portrait was placed on a

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the f ...

in 1951 and on a 20 CHF

commemorative coin A commemorative coin is a coin issued to commemorate some particular event or issue with a distinct design with reference to the occasion on which they were issued. Some coins of this category serve as collector's items only, while most commemora ...

in 2009.

Plagiarism claim

In April 2010 a professor searching for children's illustrations found a book written in 1830 by a German history teacher, Hermann Adam von Kamp, that Spyri may have used as a basis for ''Heidi''. The 1830 story is titled ''Adelheide - das Mädchen vom Alpengebirge''—translated, "Adelaide, the girl from the Alps". The two stories were alleged to share many similarities in plot line and imagery. Spyri biographer Regine Schindler said it was entirely possible that Johanna may have been familiar with the story as she grew up in a literate household with many books. However, the professor's claims have been examined and afterwards described as "unscientific", due to 'superficial coincidences' he brings up in descriptions and the many actual differences in the story, that he doesn't, as well as the "Swiss disease" of homesickness already being a common trope in fiction in the eighteenth (nineteenth in the article) century (as well as, while not mentioned in the article, it being discovered before von Kamp was even born) and characters that are either drastically different or not in "Adelaide", at all.

Bibliography

The following is a list of her main books: *''Heimatlos: Two stories for children, and for those who love children'' (1877) *''

'' (1880-81) *''The Story of Rico'' (1882) *''Uncle Titus and His Visit to the Country'' (1883) *''Gritli's Children'' (1883-84) *''Rico and Wiseli'' (1885) *''Veronica And Other Friends'' (1886) *''What Sami Sings with the Birds'' (1887) *''Toni, the Little Woodcarver'' (1890) *''Cornelli'' (1890) *''Erick and Sally'' (1891) *''Mäzli'' (1891) *''Vinzi: A Story of the Swiss Alps'' (1892) *''Moni the Goat-Boy'' (1897) *''Little Miss Grasshopper'' (1898) Her books were originally written in German. The translations into English at the end of the 19th century, or the early 1900s, mention H. A. Melcon (1839–1910), Maria Louise Kirk (1860–1938), Emma Stelter Hopkins, Louise Brooks, Helen B. Dole and the couple Charles Wharton Stork and Elisabeth P. Stork. She wrote a song that became a

Volkslied Volkslied (literally: folk song) is a genre of popular songs in German which are traditionally sung. While many of them were first passed orally, several collections were published from the late 18th century. Later, some popular songs were also i ...

, " Rote Rosen am Hügel".

References

Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek

External links

* * * * * *
Works by Johanna Spyri at Classicreader.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spyri, Johanna 1827 births 1901 deaths People from Horgen District Swiss children's writers German-language writers 19th-century Swiss novelists 19th-century Swiss women writers 19th-century Swiss writers Swiss women children's writers Swiss women novelists