Johanna Spyri 
Heidi illustrated 

Heidi illustrated Johanna Spyri — Fully illustrated. Heidi is a novel about the events in the life of a young girl in her grandfather’s care, in the Swiss Alps. Heidi is an orphaned girl initially raised by her aunt Dete in Maienfeld, Switzerland after the early deaths of her parents, Tobias and Adelheid (Dete’s sister and brother-in-law). Dete brings 6-year-old Heidi to her paternal grandfather’s house, up the mountain from Dörfli. He has been at odds with the villagers and embittered against God for years and lives in seclusion on the alm. This has earned him the nickname Alm-Uncle. He briefly resents Heidi’s arrival, but the girl’s evident intelligence and cheerful yet unaffected demeanor soon earn his genuine, if reserved, affection. Heidi enthusiastically befriends her new neighbors, young Peter the goatherd, his mother, Bridgget, and his blind maternal grandmother. With each season that passes, the mountaintop inhabitants grow more attached to Heidi. Heidi is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature.

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Johanna Spyri was a Swiss author of children’s stories, best known for Heidi. Born Johanna Louise Heusser in the rural area of Hirzel, Switzerland, as a child she spent several summers in the area around Chur in Graubünden, the setting she later would use in her novels.

Johanna Spyri geb. Heusser. Die Tochter eines Arztes und einer pietistischen Lyrikerin wuchs als viertes von sechs Kindern in einem Landarzthaushalt auf. Nach der Dorfschule und Privatunterricht beim Pfarrer erhielt sie in Zürich drei Jahre Fremdsprachen- und Musikunterricht, kam dann für ein Jahr nach Yverdon (Neuenburger See) in ein Pensionat. Ab 1845 unterrichtete sie zu Hause ihre jüngeren Schwestern und trieb autodidaktische Literaturstudien. Nach der Heirat mit dem Juristen (später Stadtschreiber) Bernhard Spyri zog sie 1852 nach Zürich.