Johanna Spyri was a Swiss author of children s stories, best known for the classic coming-of-age tale Heidi: the Girl from the Alps. Spyri spent several summers in and around the mountainous area of Graub?nden as a child, and the Alps would serve as inspiration for much of her writing. Upon moving to Zurich with her husband, where she would remain for the rest of her life, Spyri published her first story, Ein Blatt auf Vronys Grab ( A Note on Vrony s Grave ), a gritty tale of a woman suffering from the abuse of her alcoholic husband. Yet it would be in children s writing that Spyri would truly make her markHeidi was published to great international acclaim in 1880, and has gone on to become one of the best-selling children s classics of all time. In 1884, both Spyri s husband and only child passed away, and Spyri devoted herself to charitable causes for the remainder of her life, writing fifty more stories before her own death in 1901.