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From: Lenona <lenona321@yahoo.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Dec. 10: George MacDonald's 200th anniversary
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2024 01:42:17 +0000
Organization: Rocksolid Light
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I'm sorry to say there seem to be very few tributes in the more famous
newspapers!

(Which is why I didn't make an effort to post this on the 10th.)

Born in  Huntly, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, he died in Ashtead, Surrey,
England, and his ashes are buried in "Bordighera (Italy), in the English
cemetery, along with his wife Louisa and daughters Lilia and Grace."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_MacDonald#Later_life

Here are some tributes I DID find:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=george+macdonald+200&t=ffab&ia=web


And here's one quotation of his you don't hear often.

"Better to be an atheist who does the will of God than a Christian who
does not."

I wonder if he said that before or after he was told to leave the
ministry?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clkm0ejnzedo
 (this includes the photo of Lewis Carroll with GM's wife and four of
their children)

https://www.universe.com/events/george-macdonalds-200th-birthday-party-at-north-wind-manor-tickets-X8HGWB
 (tribute from Tennessee)

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22george+macdonald%22+200
 (this includes a 40-minute lecture!)

https://www.worksofmacdonald.com/bicentennial-conference/2023/10/24/bicentenary-conference-call-for-papers
 (an event that happened in MAY, at Wheaton College in Illinois)


https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/time-to-rediscover-writer-who-inspired-cs-lewis-and-tolkien-n63rdznxp
 (an article from June, by an Anglican priest)


https://groups.google.com/g/rec.arts.sf.written/c/meUr9pkeS48/m/-7OuwYXWbL0J
 (what I posted in 2005)

https://groups.google.com/g/rec.arts.sf.written/c/zK08OSGE4Rc/m/3vBhjEefAAAJ
 (this includes my misinterpretation of the ending of "At the Back of
the North Wind," when I was still in the single digits. I strongly
suspect that, given the strange use of the words "think" and "thought"
on the last page of ATBOTNW, MacDonald WANTED kids to misinterpret it.
You'll see why.

(The Abebooks forum URL doesn't work, so here's one that does.)

https://community.abebooks.com/s/question/0D58V00007eAjPwSAK/at-the-back-of-the-north-wind-question?topicId=0TO8V0000015HqLWAU&count=undefined
 (there are more than 25 responses, so you have to click to see the
second page)


SPOILER (from another newsgroup, in 2001):


ME: "MacDonald probably meant for young children to misinterpret the
ending,
given his choice of phrasing. It certainly took ME a long time to
understand it
fully!"


Deborah Stevenson, editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's
Books at the University of Illinois, responded:

"Oh, good point. I always missed the point when books weren't literal
about death. What was all the fuss about if Beth (in "Little Women") was
well at last, and where'd she get to in the next chapters?"