Which author wrote 'The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby'?

The author of The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby was Charles Kingsley. The English clergyman and writer first published the story in 1863, after it had appeared in serial form in Macmillan's Magazine during 1862–1863.

The book follows Tom, a young chimney sweep who falls into a river and is transformed into a water-baby. His fantastical adventures combine fairy-tale elements with moral instruction, Christian ideas of repentance, and criticism of child labour and the harsh treatment of the poor. Kingsley also used the story to engage with contemporary scientific debates, including Charles Darwin's ideas about evolution.

The title is sometimes confused with Water Babies, a Miles Davis album, or with folklore about supernatural water children. Those are unrelated to Kingsley's Victorian children's novel. The book was illustrated in early editions and became a major work of nineteenth-century British children's literature, despite passages that modern readers may find racially and culturally offensive.