Johanna Spyri

Johanna Spyri (1827-1901) was a Swiss writer of novels and stories for children. Born in the countryside near Zurich, she spent summers near Chur in the beautiful Grisonian Rhine Valley, a place which she would turn toward for inspiration and as a setting for her fiction throughout her career. She married the lawyer Bernhard Spyri in 1852, moving with him to Zurich where she launched her writing career with a story about domestic violence titled “A Leaf on Vrony’s Grave.” She made a name for herself as a writer of primarily children’s fiction, and much of her work concerns itself with the daily realities of rural life. After the death of her husband and only son in 1884, she primarily devoted herself to charities, though she still wrote stories until the end of her life. She is remembered today as a pioneering woman, devoted feminist, and important figure in Swiss literary history.