Johanna Spyri

Johanna Louise Spyri (née Heusser; German: [joˈhana ˈʃpiːri]; 12

June 1827 – 7 July 1901) was a Swiss author of novels, notably
Johanna Spyri
children's stories, and is best known for her book Heidi. Born in
Hirzel, a rural area in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland, as a child she
spent several summers near Chur in Graubünden, the setting she later
would use in her novels.

Contents
Biography
Plagiarism claim
Bibliography
References
External links Johanna Spyri, 1879
Born Johanna Louise
Heusser
Biography 12 June 1827
Hirzel, Switzerland
In 1852, Johanna Heusser married Bernhard Spyri. Bernhard was a Died 7 July 1901
lawyer. Whilst living in the city of Zürich she began to write about life (aged 74)
in the country. Her first story, A Leaf on Vrony's Grave, which deals Zürich, Switzerland
with a woman's life of domestic violence, was published in 1880; the Occupation Short story writer,
following year further stories for both adults and children appeared, novelist
among them the novel Heidi, which she wrote in four weeks. Heidi
Genre Children's literature,
tells the story of an orphan girl who lives with her grandfather in the
adult literature
Swiss Alps, and is famous for its vivid portrayal of the landscape.
Notable Heidi
Her husband and her only child, both named Bernhard, both died in works
1884. Alone, she devoted herself to charitable causes and wrote over
fifty more stories before her death in 1901. She was interred in the family plot at the Sihlfeld-A Cemetery in
Zürich. An icon in Switzerland, Spyri's portrait was placed on a postage stamp in 1951 and on a 20 CHF
commemorative coin in 2009.

Plagiarism claim
In April 2010 a professor searching for children's illustrations found a book written in 1830 by a German
history teacher, Hermann Adam von Kamp, that Spyri may have used as a basis for Heidi. The 1830 story is
titled Adelheide - das Mädchen vom Alpengebirge—translated, "Adelaide, the girl from the Alps". The two
stories were alleged to share many similarities in plot line and imagery. Spyri biographer Regine Schindler said
it was entirely possible that Johanna may have been familiar with the story as she grew up in a literate
household with many books.[1] However, the professor's claims have been examined and afterwards described
as "un-scientific", due to 'superficial coincidences' he brings up in descriptions and the many actual differences
in the story, that he doesn't, as well as the "Swiss disease" of homesickness already being a common trope in
fiction in the eighteenth (nineteenth in the article) century (as well as,
while not mentioned in the article, it being discovered before von
Kamp was even born) and characters that are either drastically
different or not in "Adelaide", at all.[2]

Bibliography
The following is a list of her main books:

Heimatlos: Two stories for children, and for those who love Gravesite at Sihlfeld cemetery in
children (1877) Zurich
Heidi (1880-81)
The Story of Rico (1882)
Uncle Titus and His Visit to the Country (1883)
Gritli's Children (1883-84)
Rico and Wiseli (1885)
Veronica And Other Friends (1886)
What Sami Sings with the Birds (1887)
Toni, the Little Woodcarver (1890)
Erick and Sally (1891)
Mäzli (1891)
Cornelli (1892)
Vinzi: A Story of the Swiss Alps (1892)
Moni the Goat-Boy (1897)
Little Miss Grasshopper (1898)

Her books were originally written in German. The translations into English at the end of the 19th century, or
the early 1900s, mention H. A. Melcon (1839-1910), Marie Louise Kirk (1860-1936), Emma Stelter Hopkins,
Louise Brooks, Helen B. Dole and the couple Charles Wharton Stork and Elisabeth P. Stork.

References
1. "Ur-Heidi aus dem Ruhrpott. Ist Johanna Spyris Alpengeschichte geklaut?" (https://archive.is/2
0120730120236/http://www.3sat.de/dynamic/sitegen/bin/sitegen.php?tab=2&source=/kulturzei
t/themen/143450/index.html) [Ur-Heidi from the Ruhrpott. Is Johanna Spyri stealing Alpine
history?]. 3sat (in German). Archived from the original (http://www.3sat.de/dynamic/sitegen/bin/s
itegen.php?tab=2&source=/kulturzeit/themen/143450/index.html) on 2012-07-30. Retrieved
2020-02-05.
2. Geisel, Sieglinde (14 April 2010). "Gibt es für Johanna Spyris "Heidi" eine Vorlage? Ein
deutscher Germanist meint, sie gefunden zu haben: Die Mär vom Ur-Heidi" (https://www.nzz.c
h/die_maer_vom_ur-heidi-1.5448506) [Is there an original for Johanna Spyri's "Heidi"? A
German Germanist thinks they have found: The story of Ur-Heidi]. Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in
German).

External links
Works written by or about Johanna Spyri at Wikisource
Media related to Johanna Spyri at Wikimedia Commons
Works by Johanna Spyri (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2491) at Project Gutenberg
 Works by or about Johanna Spyri (https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28subject%3
A%22Spyri%2C%20Johanna%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Johanna%20Spyri%22%20O
R%20creator%3A%22Spyri%2C%20Johanna%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Johanna%20S
pyri%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Spyri%2C%20J%2E%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Johann
a%20Spyri%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Spyri%2C%20Johanna%22%20OR%20descri
ption%3A%22Johanna%20Spyri%22%29%20OR%20%28%221827-1901%22%20AND%20S
pyri%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29) at Internet Archive
Works by Johanna Spyri (https://librivox.org/author/1663) at LibriVox (public domain
audiobooks)
Works by Johanna Spyri at Classicreader.com (https://web.archive.org/web/20160313041616/h
ttp://www.classicreader.com/author.php/aut.53)

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This page was last edited on 15 December 2020, at 21:17 (UTC).

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