This new edition of George MacDonald's 1873 story is updated and introduced as Volume 15 in The Cullen Collection by Michael Phillips.

In Gutta Percha Willie, inventive young Willie Macmichael turns everything about him to creative uses, hungrily learning from the grown-ups around him, prompting MacDonald’s subtitle, “The Working Genius.”

One of MacDonald’s lesser-known titles, Gutta Percha Willie was MacDonald’s only book published in 1873, released while he was on a lecture tour in America. Still editor of the magazine Good Words for the Young, MacDonald wrote this second “boy’s novel,” unconnected with but written for a similar audience as Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood.

Ranald Bannerman’s Boyhood and Gutta Percha Willie are often considered “children’s” novels, though that is not really accurate. Both chronicle the boyhood exploits of two very different young men—Ranald mischievous and always getting into scrapes, Willie one of MacDonald’s almost “too good to be true” characters. Both boys, however, have fathers whom MacDonald characterizes in their own unique ways as portrayals of God himself, thus, as he nearly always manages to do, bringing the “story” into unity with the backdrop-tapestry of Fatherhood and Christlikeness that are the foundational pillars of his life’s message.

“MacDonald’s strongest and most eternal contribution to the world lies in the realm of spiritual practicality. Willie epitomizes the practicality of growing into one’s place in God’s general business. This story therefore deserves to be considered one of MacDonald’s memorable portrayals of that eternal imperative. I love this book!”
- Michael Phillips, from the Introduction

 

161 pages