Christy MacKaye Barnes was born in New Hampshire and went to boarding school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After two years at college, she traveled with her sister Arvia to Europe and, in Dornach, joined the Anthroposophical Society. When she returned to the U.S., she published a book of poems, Wind-in-the-Grass. She married Henry Barnes in 1939 and, a year later during a visit with Marie Steiner, received a diploma for the art of speech. Later, she played a part in Rudolf Steiner's Portal of Initiation, directed by Hans Pusch. She went on to become a Waldorf teacher, the editor of Journal for Anthroposophy, and numerous other activities. She and Henry moved to Hillsdale, New York, where they were instrumental in establishing the community in Hawthorne Valley/Harlemville. Christy gradually assumed management of Adonis Press, which has published two of her books: A Wound Awoke Me (1994) and Arvia MacKaye Ege: Pioneer for Anthroposophy (1995). She died in 2002.