The introduction of this edition elaborates on what inspired Johanna Spyri: The 1922 David McKay edition of Heidi featured the beautiful illustrations by famed American illustrator Jessie Willcox Smith seen in this post. She is returned to Grandfather, and, after some turmoil, all is well that ends well. Heidi grows attached to the girl, and vice versa, but can’t shake her homesickness. After a time, Dete comes back for Heidi, over Grandfather’s objections, having secured a place for her as a companion to the disabled young daughter of a wealthy businessman. Heidi wins him over (of course) and grows to love him, the mountains, and the little goat herd Peter, her only friend. It’s a simple and rather sentimental tale of an orphan girl (of course) who is left by her aunt Dete, who has been caring for her, with her gruff grandfather, a veritable hermit living in the Swiss Alps with a few goats. It’s hard to account for the extraordinary popularity of Heidi. One of the most faithful adaptations is the 2015 German language film, with an accurately dark-haired Heidi - like she was described in the book. One of the most famous adaptations is the 1937 Shirley Temple film, which plays up on sentimentality, charming though it is. Heidi has also been adapted numerous times to the stage, including an opera, plus several movies and television series. It’s not only the bestselling Swiss book ever published, but one of the bestselling books in the world.

None of her subsequent books - and there were many - achieved the level of success as did Heidi.

Originally written in German, Heidi was Spyri’s first published novel. Johanna Spyri(1827 – 1901), the author of Heidi, has been called the “Swiss Louisa May Alcott.” Tens of millions of copies of this classic children’s novel (first published in 1881) have sold worldwide in translations of more than forty languages.

Heidi grandit johanna spyri