"The one definite idea I have in writing stories," said MacGrath, is to afford an agreeable, pleasant hour or two to my readers. I wish to amuse them, to make them wish that they, too, might have lived as this or that hero, in this or that land, probable or improbable. I prefer sunshine, mirth, buoyancy, and I believe most readers prefer the same. Grown-up people never wholly lose their love of fairy tales, and grown up fairy tales have been the scheme of most of my novels." The Goose Girl is one such, taking place in an imaginary German principality. The Grand Duke of Ehrenstein's daughter has been missing for years, and he blames neighboring Jugendheit. War may result. Enter Gretchen, the beautiful goose girl, who can read, write, do sums, and loves music. Is she more than she seems? What will happen between the American consul Carmichael, and the charming Princess Hildegard? It's the time of Bismarck, and the air is dark with plots.

Author Biography

Harold MacGrath (1871 - 1932) was a bestselling American novelist, short story writer and screenwriter. Also known occasionally as Harold McGrath, he was born in Syracuse, New York. As a young man, he worked as a reporter and columnist for the Syracuse Herald newspaper until the late 1890s when he published his first novel, a romance titled Arms and the Woman. According to the New York Times, his next book, The Puppet Crown, was the No.7 bestselling book in the United States for all of 1901. MacGrath subsequently wrote novels for the mass market about love, adventure, mystery, spies and the like at an average rate of more than one a year. He would have three more of his books that were among the top ten bestselling books of the year. At the same time, he published a number of short stories for major American magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal and Red Book magazine. Several of MacGrath's novels were serialized in these magazines and contributing to them was something he would continue to do until his death in 1932.