Dinah Maria Mulock Craik was born in Staffordshire, England, in 1826. The daughter of a local minister, Craik was raised from an early age to value education and literature. She moved to London at the age of twenty and quickly became a popular author, publishing numerous short stories to considerable commercial and critical acclaim. An affable and witty conversationalist, Craik ... Read morebecame something of a celebrity in London society. In 1854 she married George Lillie Craik, a partner with Alexander Macmillan at the publishing house Macmillan & Co. She died in 1887. Simon Van Booy is the author of two novels and two collections of short stories, including The Secret Lives of People in Love and Love Begins in Winter, which won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. He is the editor of three philosophy books and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, NPR, and the BBC. His work has been translated into fourteen languages. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter. Show Less