The Little City of Hope: A Christmas Story

F. Marion Crawford

Jan 2003 · Wildside Press LLC

About this ebook

F. Marion Crawford (1854-1909), an American writer born in Italy, was a world-traveler, linguist, yatchsman, and bestselling author, who specialized in contemporary or historical novels set in exotic places. Among his best-known titles are Mr. Isaacs, Dr. Claudius, A Roman Singer, Zoroaster, With the Immortals, The Cigarette-Maker's Romance, The Witch of Prague, Don Orisino, The Children of the King and many others. Among lovers of fantasy and the macabre, he is best remembered for his Arabian Nights novel Khaled and his supernatural collection, The Complete Wandering Ghosts. The Little City of Hope is one of his most charming works, a book to sit on the same shelf with the Christmas stories of Charles Dickens.

About the author

F. Marion Crawford was born on August 2, 1854, in Bagni de Lucca, Tuscany, Italy. He was the son of the American sculptor Thomas Crawford. He was educated by a French governess; then at St. Paul's School, Concord, N.H.; in the quiet country village of Hatfield Regis, under an English tutor; at Trinity College, Cambridge, where they thought him to become a mathematician; at Heidelberg and Karlsruhe, and at the University of Rome, where a special interest in Oriental languages sent him to India with the idea of preparing for a professorship. He spent a short time as a newspaper editor there. His first novel, Mr. Isaacs, was published in 1882. During his lifetime, he wrote over forty novels and one play, Francesca da Rimini. His novels include Dr. Claudius, A Roman Singer, A Cigarette Maker's Romance, The Witch of Prague, The Heart of Rome, and The Diva's Ruby. He died on April 9, 1909.