Author: Ruth MacFarland Furniss
Born: 17 April 1885
Died: 10 February 1971
Bio: Ruth MacFarland Furniss was born on 17 April 1895 at Vineland, Cumberland County, New Jersey, and died on 12 February 1971 at Stockbridge, Berkshire County, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of William Ponsonby Furniss (1858-1929) and Hetty Hart MacFarland (1862-1904).

She was brought up on her grandparents (William Wallace MacFarland 1834-1905 and Sarah Bailey 1832-1908) estate on Staten Island. There being no other children around, She just had to make playfellows of the animals and insects, and very jolly playfellows they proved, too. She slept in a big room with dormer windows, and the reflection of the leaves on the trees outside made her think of a lot of little fairies dancing about and so she became acquainted with her shadow fairies.

She bought a farm house near Stockbridge in 1913 and had moved there by 1916, remaining there until her death in 1971.

She worked as a librarian, writer, sculptor and real estate agent.

Her publications include:

Shadow Fairies and Others (New York: Hermann Lechner, 1911).

“How to plant a paper garden,” House and Garden (New York: McBride, Nast & Co., 1914) 26 (September 1914): 140-1, 168-9 

“The Portable Sundial Another Ancient Union of Beauty and Utility,” Arts and Decoration (New York: Adam Budge, Inc., 1915), 5 (July 1915): 364-365 

“The History of Larrawaugh,” Springfield (Massachusetts) Sunday Republican, 19 November 1916. 

“Egg Money and the Farm Housewife,” Farm Mechanics (Chicago: Farm Mechanics Company, 1919), 1 (May 1919), p. 62.

“The Ways of the Tea House,” Tea Room Management, 1 (August 1922), 5

“Adopting a Noah’s Ark Farm House,” Gardening Magazine, 41 (July 1925): 381-3 

“Pools: The Poems of Gardens,” Gardeners’ Chronicle of America (New York: The Chronicle Press, 1925) 29-30, p. 127

“Gardens Designed by a Sculptor,” International Studio (New York: 1925), 81 (1925), pp. 89-92.

 “Garden Pools Deep and Shallow,” Arts and Decoration (New York: , 1927), 27 (July 1927): 34-7