Heidi

Johanna Spyri, June 1827-July 1901, born Johanna Louise Heusser in Hirzel, Switzerland was an author of children’s stories and is best known for Heidi. As a child she spent several summers in the area of Chur and Graubunden, Switzerland and this setting is what she used in her novels. She married Bernhard Spryi, a lawyer and moved to Zurich. There she wrote about life in the country. Her first book A Leaf on Vrony’s Grave was published in 1871 and Heidi soon followed. Her husband and their only child both died in 1884. After their deaths she devoted herself to charitable causes and wrote over fifty more stories before her death in 1901.