Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776-1822) was born in Koenigsberg, Prussia (which is now Kaliningrad, Russia). He was educated in law, but his chief interest was music and as a young man moved to Germany hoping to begin a musical career; he went on to work as a composer, director and orchestral conductor. He only turned seriously to writing during his thirties, as a way to supplement his income. With his four novels, and around fifty stories and novellas, he became one of the best-known and most admired and influential authors of his time. He is the subject and hero of Offenbach's famous opera The Tales of Hoffmann and is regarded by many as a seminal figure in the field of fantasy for children. Robert Ingpen was born in 1936 in Geelong, Australia and still lives and works nearby in Barwon Heads. He studied illustration art and book design at The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. In 1986, he was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for his contribution to children's literature and he has been honoured with Membership of the Order of Australia. The Nutcracker is published following his highly acclaimed series of illustrated Children's Classics, which have now been published in many editions around the world. The titles in the series are: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice Through the Looking-Glass, Around the World in Eighty Days, The Jungle Book, Just So Stories, Peter Pan and Wendy, The Adventures of Pinocchio, The Secret Garden, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Treasure Island, The Wind in the Willows and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.