GEORGE MACDONALD (1824-1905) was a prolific writer, now best known for his fantasies for children. A minister of the Congregational church, MacDonald resigned after a disagreement with his deacons and from 1853 earned his living by lecturing and writing. MacDonald's influence on later writers has been significant. As W. H. Auden wrote, "George MacDonald's most extraordinary, and precious, gift is his ability, in all his stories, to create an atmosphere of goodness about which there is nothing phone or moralistic. Nothing is rarer in literature."