Johanna Spyri

Born 12 June 1827 in Hirzel, a rural pocket of canton Zürich, Johanna Heusser spent childhood summers near Chur in Graubünden — alpine valleys that would later furnish the landscape for her fiction. She became Johanna Spyri by marriage and turned to writing novels, including children's stories. Heidi arrived and stuck: the tale of the orphan girl in the mountains found an audience that never let go. She died 7 July 1901, leaving behind a book that outlasted its century.