More than four hundred years ago there lived a diligent man called Sir Thomas Malory, who wrote in English words many of the beautiful Welsh tales about King Arthur’s Knights, that the people of Wales loved so well.
All the stories in this little book were found in Malory’s big book, except Geraint and Enid. But it, too, is one of the old Welsh tales that tell of the brave knights and fair ladies of King Arthur’s court.
Many times, since Sir Thomas Malory wrote his book, have these stories been told again to old and young, but perhaps never before have they been told to the children so simply as in this little book.
MacGregor was born in Rugby, Ontario in 1872. Her parents were John Miller, a schoolteacher, and Mary Brown Johnston. Both parents were of Scottish ancestry. She was the eldest of five children. She attended school in Edgar, Ontario, and the Orillia Collegiate Institute. She received her teacher's certificate from the Toronto Normal school in 1896. Beginning in 1899, she taught for seven years in Orillia.
She began writing in 1905. She contributed a column to Teacher's Monthly and then worked on the editorial staff of the Presbyterian Church's Sunday School Publications. In 1906 when she tried to publish her first novel she learned that her name, 'Esther Miller' was already in use by another author so she chose to write under the pen name "Marian Keith". In 1909, she married Donald MacGregor who was one of the founding members of the United Church of Canada.[1] During the time that they were married they moved several times to places in central Ontario to support her husband's ministerial career. She and her husband spent a fair amount of time in London, Ontario where she wrote seven of her novels. While in London, she formed a Sunday school for girls that was called the 'Marian Keith Club'.
In 1924, she wrote a book called A Gentleman Adventurer which she based on the life of a neighbour, Thompson Smith. Canadian literary scholars have cited this as her best work.[4] In many of her novels, MacGregor sought to portray her connection between religious thought and social conscience in order to improve life for the poor and uneducated. She also wrote about tensions produced between Scottish and Irish settlers and the effects of education and urbanization on rural society.
MacGregor authored more than a dozen novels and several biographies, including Courageous Women which she co-authored with Lucy Maud Montgomery and Mabel Burns McKinley. MacGregor was a friend of Montgomery who was also married to a minister. She has been grouped with Montgomery and Nellie McClung as contributors to the revival of Canadian writing by women
She and Donald retired to a farm on Georgian Bay but her husband was injured in a train accident and died in 1946. She spent the rest of her life living in Owen Sound, Ontario with her sister and died there in 1961.
I read this aloud for my baby niece Kaitlyn. You can never get started too early on the classics, right? It's an able distillation of Arthurian tales, mostly based on Sir Thomas Malory's work. The chapters include Geraint and Enid, Lancelot and Elaine, Pelleas and Ettarde, Gareth and Lynette, Sir Galahad and the Sacred Cup, and the Death of Arthur. I believe the original version of this collection was published c. 1906/ 1907.
6 not so famous stories about King Arthur's Knights. The writing style is appropriate for children and the stories are too shirt to set really depth, still it helps you dive into the Arthur's legend and learn more about the circumstances.
U Waldo Cutler--This felt like an abbreviated version of Stories of King Arthur's Knights. I liked them both. This is the stuff of childhood memories. Stemming from the Excalibur to Richard Gere's First Knight, from the revised Clive Owen's King Arthur to Camelot 3000 comic books series--I have grown love all these stories.
After reading MacGregor ebook rendition, it all brought the stories home. Childhood memories, revisited. Just love it.
Not bad storytelling - so much better than the ones in archaic old English - except that the stories chosen are a tad flat. Did not like the characters much either. This book is good in the sense that it offers readers six different stories about Arthur's knights which we seldom hear of (with the exception of "Lancelot and Elaine").
4* Farta de saber mil e uma coisas sobre o Rei Artur e os seus cavaleiros e nunca ter lido nada sobre isso. Aqui me redimi. São contos para crianças sobres os diferentes cavaleiros e sobre os seus feitos e vale a pena ler. Ouvido em audiobook.