Johanna Spyri was born Johanna Louise Heusser on June 12, 1827, in Hirzel, Switzerland. In 1852, she married Swiss lawyer Bernhard Spyri and moved to Zurich, where she began to write stories about life in the country. Spyri's first novel was published in 1871. Although she wrote more than fifty stories before passing away in 1901, Johanna Spyri is best known for Heidi, the story of an orphan who goes to live with her grandfather on the mountain.