Madeleine L'Engle was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer best known for her young-adult fiction, particularly the
Newbery MedalThe John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association . The award is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The award has been given since 1922. ...
-winning
A Wrinkle in TimeA Wrinkle in Time is a science fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle, first published in 1962. The story revolves around a young girl whose father, a government scientist, has gone missing after working on a mysterious project called a tesseract. The book won a Newbery Medal, Sequoyah Book Award, and...
and its sequels
A Wind in the DoorA Wind in the Door is a young adult science fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle. It is a companion book to A Wrinkle in Time, and part of the Time Quartet .-Plot summary:...
,
A Swiftly Tilting PlanetA Swiftly Tilting Planet is a 1978 science fiction novel by Madeleine L'Engle, part of the Time Quartet. In it, Charles Wallace Murry, an advanced and perceptive child in A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door, has grown into adolescence...
,
Many WatersMany Waters is a 1986 novel by Madeleine L'Engle, part of the author's Time Quartet . The title is taken from the Song of Solomon 8:7: "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it...
, and
An Acceptable TimeAn Acceptable Time is a 1989 young adult science fiction novel by Madeleine L'Engle, the last of her books to feature Polyhymnia O'Keefe, better known as Poly or Polly ,...
. Her works reflect both her
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
faith and her strong interest in modern science.
Early life
Madeleine L'Engle Camp was born in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on November 29, 1918, and named after her great-grandmother, Madeleine L'Engle, otherwise known as Mado. Her maternal grandfather was Florida banker
Bion BarnettBion Hall Barnett was an American banker. In 1877 he co-founded Barnett Bank, known as "Florida's Bank", the largest in the U.S. state of Florida at the time of its acquisition by NationsBank in 1997.-Early years:...
, co-founder of
Barnett BankBarnett Bank, founded in 1877, eventually became the largest commercial bank in Florida with over 600 offices and $41.2 billion in deposits. The purchase by NationsBank was announced August 29, 1997, but even before signs on Barnett's branches were changed, NationsBank merged with BankAmerica in...
in
Jacksonville, FloridaJacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
. Her mother, a pianist, was also named Madeleine. Her father, Charles Wadsworth Camp, was a writer, a critic, and a foreign correspondent who, according to his daughter, suffered lung damage from exposure to
mustard gasThe sulfur mustards, or sulphur mustards, commonly known as mustard gas, are a class of related cytotoxic, vesicant chemical warfare agents with the ability to form large blisters on exposed skin. Pure sulfur mustards are colorless, viscous liquids at room temperature...
during
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. (In a 2004
New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
profile of the writer, relatives of L'Engle disputed the mustard gas story, claiming instead that Camp's illness was caused by
alcoholismAlcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
.)
L'Engle wrote her first story at age five, and began keeping a journal at age eight. These early literary attempts did not translate into academic success at the New York City private school where she was enrolled. A shy, clumsy child, she was branded as stupid by some of her teachers. Unable to please them, she retreated into her own world of books and writing. Her parents often disagreed about how to raise her, and as a result she attended a number of
boarding schoolA boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
s and had many
governessA governess is a girl or woman employed to teach and train children in a private household. In contrast to a nanny or a babysitter, she concentrates on teaching children, not on meeting their physical needs...
es. They traveled frequently. At one point, the family moved to a
chateauA château is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions...
near
ChamonixChamonix-Mont-Blanc or, more commonly, Chamonix is a commune in the Haute-Savoie département in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It was the site of the 1924 Winter Olympics, the first Winter Olympics...
in the
French AlpsThe French Alps are those portions of the Alps mountain range which stand within France, located in the Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions....
, in what Madeleine described as the hope that the cleaner air would be easier on her father's lungs. Madeleine was sent to a boarding school in
SwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. However, in 1933, L'Engle's grandmother fell ill, and they moved near
Jacksonville, FloridaJacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
to be close to her. L'Engle attended another boarding school, Ashley Hall, in
Charleston, South CarolinaCharleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
. When her father died in 1935, Madeleine arrived home too late to say goodbye.
Adulthood
L'Engle attended
Smith CollegeSmith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...
from 1937 to 1941. After graduating
cum laude from Smith she moved to an apartment in New York City. In 1942 she met actor
Hugh FranklinHugh Hale Franklin was an American theatre and soap opera actor. He was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma.Franklin was best known for his role as Dr. Charles Tyler on All My Children, a role he played from the show’s first episode in 1970 until 1983...
when she appeared in the play
The Cherry OrchardThe Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...
by
Anton ChekhovAnton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
. L'Engle married Franklin on January 26, 1946, the year after the publication of her first novel,
The Small RainThe Small Rain is a semi-autobiographical novel by Madeleine L'Engle, about the many difficulties in the life of talented pianist Katherine Forrester between the ages of 10 and 19. Published in 1945 by the Vanguard Press, it was the first of L'Engle's long list of books, and was reprinted in 1984...
. (Later she wrote of their meeting and marriage, "We met in
The Cherry Orchard and were married in
The Joyous Season.") The couple's first daughter, Josephine, was born in 1947.
The family moved to a 200-year-old farmhouse called Crosswicks in rural
ConnecticutConnecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
in 1952. To replace Franklin's lost acting income, they purchased and operated a small general store, while L'Engle continued with her writing. Their son Bion was born that same year. Four years later, seven-year-old Maria, the daughter of family friends who had died, came to live with the Franklins, and they adopted her shortly thereafter. During this period, L'Engle also served as
choirA choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
director of the local
Congregational ChurchCongregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....
.
Career
In 1959 the family returned to New York City so that Hugh could resume his acting career. The move was immediately preceded by a ten-week cross-country camping trip, during which L'Engle first had the idea for her most famous novel,
A Wrinkle in TimeA Wrinkle in Time is a science fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle, first published in 1962. The story revolves around a young girl whose father, a government scientist, has gone missing after working on a mysterious project called a tesseract. The book won a Newbery Medal, Sequoyah Book Award, and...
. L'Engle completed the book by 1960, but more than two dozen publishers rejected the story before
Farrar, Straus and GirouxFarrar, Straus and Giroux is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger W. Straus, Jr. and John C. Farrar. Known primarily as Farrar, Straus in its first decade of existence, the company was renamed several times, including Farrar, Straus and Young and Farrar, Straus and Cudahy...
finally published it in 1962.
In 1960 the Franklins moved to an apartment in the
Cleburne BuildingCleburne Building is an apartment building located at West End Avenue and 105th Steet in Manhattan, New York City....
on
West End AvenueWest End Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, not far from the Hudson River.West End Avenue originates at West 59th Street; the continuation of the street below 59th Street is called Eleventh Avenue. It runs from 59th Street to its...
; the apartment was sold by the estate for $4 million in 2008. From 1960 to 1966 (and again in 1989 and 1990), L'Engle taught at St. Hilda's & St. Hugh's School in New York. In 1965 she became a volunteer librarian at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, also in New York. She later served for many years as writer-in-residence at the Cathedral, generally spending her winters in New York and her summers at Crosswicks.
During the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, L'Engle wrote dozens of books for children and adults. One of her books for adults,
Two-Part Invention, was a memoir of her marriage, completed after her husband's death from
cancerCancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
on September 26, 1986.
Later years
L'Engle was seriously injured in an automobile accident in 1991, but recovered well enough to visit
Antarctica in 1992. Her son, Bion Franklin, died on December 17, 1999. He was forty-seven years old.
In her final years, L'Engle became unable to travel or teach, due to reduced mobility from
osteoporosisOsteoporosis is a disease of bones that leads to an increased risk of fracture. In osteoporosis the bone mineral density is reduced, bone microarchitecture is deteriorating, and the amount and variety of proteins in bone is altered...
, and especially after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage in 2002. She also abandoned her former schedule of speaking engagements and seminars. A few compilations of older work, some of it previously unpublished, appeared after 2001.
Madeleine L'Engle died of natural causes at Rose Haven, a
nursing facilityA nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...
close to her home in Litchfield, Connecticut, on September 6, 2007, according to a statement by her publicist the following day.
She is buried in the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in
ManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
,
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Religious beliefs
L'Engle was an Episcopalian and believed in universal salvation, writing that "All will be redeemed in God's fullness of time, all, not just the small portion of the population who have been given the grace to know and accept Christ. All the strayed and stolen sheep. All the little lost ones." As a result of her promotion of Christian universalism, many Christian bookstores refused to carry her books, which were also frequently banned from Christian schools and libraries. However, some of her most secular critics attacked her work for being too religious.
Her views on divine punishment were similar to those of
George MacDonaldGeorge MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister.Known particularly for his poignant fairy tales and fantasy novels, George MacDonald inspired many authors, such as W. H. Auden, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, E. Nesbit and Madeleine L'Engle. It was C.S...
, who also had a large influence on her fictional work. She said "I cannot believe that God wants punishment to go on interminably any more than does a loving parent. The entire purpose of loving punishment is to teach, and it lasts only as long as is needed for the lesson. And the lesson is always love."
Awards, honors, and organizations
In addition to the numerous awards, medals and prizes won by individual books L'Engle wrote, she personally received many honors over the years. These included being named an Associate Dame of Justice in the
Venerable Order of Saint JohnThe Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem , is a royal order of chivalry established in 1831 and found today throughout the Commonwealth of Nations, Hong Kong, Ireland and the United States of America, with the world-wide mission "to prevent and relieve sickness and...
(1972); the USM Medallion from
The University of Southern MississippiThe University of Southern Mississippi, informally known as Southern Miss, is a large public research university located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, United States. It is situated north of Gulfport, Mississippi and northeast of New Orleans, Louisiana...
(1978), the Smith College Award "for service to community or college which exemplifies the purposes of liberal arts education" (1981), the Sophia Award for distinction in her field (1984), the Regina Medal (1985), the ALAN Award for outstanding contribution to adolescent literature, presented by the
National Council of Teachers of EnglishThe National Council of Teachers of English is an American professional organization dedicated to "improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education...
(1986), and the Kerlan Award (1990).
In 1985 she was a guest speaker at the
Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
, giving a speech entitled "Dare to be Creative!" That same year she began a two-year term as president of the Authors Guild. In addition she received over a dozen
honorary degreeAn honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
s from as many colleges and universities, such as
Haverford CollegeHaverford College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States, a suburb of Philadelphia...
. Many of these name her as a Doctor of Humane Letters, but she was also made a Doctor of Literature and a Doctor of Sacred Theology, the latter at
Berkeley Divinity SchoolBerkeley Divinity School, founded in 1854, is an official seminary of the Episcopal Church, based in New Haven, Connecticut. The seminary was originally founded as a middle-way between the Anglo-Catholic leaning General Theological Seminary in New York, and the Evangelical-leaning Virginia...
in 1984. In 1995 she was Writer in Residence for
Victoria Magazine. In 1997 she was recognized for Lifetime Achievement from the World Fantasy Awards. In 2004 she received the
National Humanities MedalThe National Humanities Medal honors individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the humanities, broadened citizens’ engagement with the humanities, or helped preserve and expand Americans’ access to important resources in the humanities.The award, given by the...
, but could not attend the ceremony due to poor health.
The Madeleine L'Engle Collection
Since 1976,
Wheaton CollegeWheaton College is a private, evangelical Protestant liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago in the United States...
in
IllinoisIllinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
has maintained a special collection of L'Engle's papers, and a variety of other materials, dating back to 1919. The Madeleine L'Engle Collection includes manuscripts for the majority of her published and unpublished works, as well as interviews, photographs, audio and video presentations, and an extensive array of correspondence with both adults and children, including artwork sent to her by children.
Bibliographic overview
L'Engle's best-known works are divided between the "Chronos" and "Kairos" frameworks. The former is the framework in which the stories of the Austin family take place, and is presented in a primarily realistic setting, though occasionally with elements that might be regarded as
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
. The latter is the framework in which the stories of the Murry and O'Keefe families take place, and is presented sometimes in a realistic setting and sometimes in a more
fantasticFantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
or magical milieu. Generally speaking, the more realistic Kairos material is found in the O'Keefe stories, which deal with the second generation characters. However, the Murry-O'Keefe and Austin families should not be regarded as living in separate worlds, because several characters cross over between them, and historical events are also shared.
In addition to novels and poetry, L'Engle wrote many nonfiction works, including the autobiographical
Crosswicks Journals and other explorations of the subjects of faith and art. For L'Engle, who wrote repeatedly about "story as truth," the distinction between fiction and memoir was sometimes blurred. Real events from her life and family history made their way into some of her novels, while fictional elements, such as assumed names for people and places, can be found in her published journals.
A
themeA theme is a broad, message, or moral of a story. The message may be about life, society, or human nature. Themes often explore timeless and universal ideas and are almost always implied rather than stated explicitly. Along with plot, character,...
, often implied and occasionally explicit, in L'Engle's works is that the phenomena that people call religion, science, and magic are simply different aspects of a single seamless reality.
Important L'Engle characters
Most of L'Engle's novels from
A Wrinkle in Time onward are centered on a cast of recurring characters, who sometimes reappear decades older than when they were first introduced. The "Kairos" books are about the Murry and O'Keefe families, with
Meg MurryMargaret "Meg" Murry O'Keefe is the main character and main protagonist in Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quintet of Science fantasy novels, the daughter of two scientists, the sister of twins Sandy and Dennys Murry and telepath Charles Wallace Murry, and the mother of Polly O'Keefe and others in the...
and
Calvin O'KeefeCalvin O'Keefe is a major character in Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quartet series of books, and, as "Dr. Calvin O'Keefe", an important character in her O'Keefe series of young adult novels. In an interview released on the DVD of the TV adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, L'Engle describes Calvin as "the...
marrying and producing the next generation's protagonist,
Polly O'KeefePolyhymnia O'Keefe is the protagonist of the Madeleine L'Engle novels A House Like a Lotus and An Acceptable Time, and a major character in two previous books, The Arm of the Starfish and Dragons in the Waters. The eldest daughter of Meg Murry O'Keefe and Dr...
. L'Engle wrote about both generations concurrently, with Polly (originally called Poly) first appearing in 1965, well before the second book about her parents as teenagers (
A Wind in the Door, 1973). The "Chronos" books center on
Vicky AustinVictoria "Vicky" Austin is one of Madeleine L'Engle's most frequently-used fictional characters, appearing in eight books and referred to in at least one more. She is the main protagonist of the Austin family series of books...
and her siblings. Although Vicky's appearances all occur during her childhood and teenage years, her sister Suzy also appears as an adult in
A Severed Wasp, with a husband and teenage children. In addition, two of L'Engle's early protagonists, Katherine Forrester and Camilla Dickinson, reappear as elderly women in later novels. Rounding out the cast are several characters "who cross and connect",
Canon TallisCanon John Tallis is a major character in the young adult novels of Madeleine L'Engle, appearing in four books. The character is based on L'Engle's real-life spiritual advisor, Canon Edward Nason West of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City....
,
Adam EddingtonAdam Eddington III is a major character in three young adult novels by Madeleine L'Engle. A marine biology student, he is the protagonist of The Arm of the Starfish , and a reluctant love interest for Vicky Austin in A Ring of Endless Light , a relationship that continues in Troubling a Star...
and
Zachary GrayZachary Gray is a fictional character in the young adult novels of Madeleine L'Engle...
, who each appear in both the Kairos and Chronos books.
Kairos
- First-generation (Murry)
- A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time is a science fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle, first published in 1962. The story revolves around a young girl whose father, a government scientist, has gone missing after working on a mysterious project called a tesseract. The book won a Newbery Medal, Sequoyah Book Award, and...
(1962) (Newbery Award Winner) ISBN 0-374-38613-7
- A Wind in the Door
A Wind in the Door is a young adult science fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle. It is a companion book to A Wrinkle in Time, and part of the Time Quartet .-Plot summary:...
(1973) ISBN 0-374-38443-6
- A Swiftly Tilting Planet
A Swiftly Tilting Planet is a 1978 science fiction novel by Madeleine L'Engle, part of the Time Quartet. In it, Charles Wallace Murry, an advanced and perceptive child in A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door, has grown into adolescence...
(1978) ISBN 0-374-37362-0
- Many Waters
Many Waters is a 1986 novel by Madeleine L'Engle, part of the author's Time Quartet . The title is taken from the Song of Solomon 8:7: "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it...
(1986) ISBN 0-374-34796-4
- Second-generation (O'Keefe)
- The Arm of the Starfish
The Arm of the Starfish is a young adult novel by Madeleine L'Engle, first published in 1965. It is the first novel featuring Polly O'Keefe and the O'Keefe family, a generation after the events of A Wrinkle in Time...
(1965) ISBN 0-374-30396-7
- Dragons in the Waters
Dragons in the Waters is a 1976 young adult murder mystery by Madeleine L'Engle, the second title to feature her character Polly O'Keefe. Its protagonist is thirteen-year-old Simon Bolivar Quentin Phair Renier, an impoverished orphan from an aristocratic Southern family...
(1976) ISBN 0-374-31868-9
- A House Like a Lotus
A House Like a Lotus is a 1984 young adult novel by Madeleine L'Engle. Its protagonist is sixteen-year-old Polly O'Keefe, whose friend and mentor, Maximiliana Horne, has sent her on a trip to Greece and Cyprus. As she travels, Polly must come to terms with a recent traumatic event involving Max...
(1984) ISBN 0-374-33385-8
- An Acceptable Time
An Acceptable Time is a 1989 young adult science fiction novel by Madeleine L'Engle, the last of her books to feature Polyhymnia O'Keefe, better known as Poly or Polly ,...
(1989) ISBN 0-374-30027-5
Chronos
- Meet the Austins
Meet the Austins is the title of a 1960 novel by Madeleine L'Engle, the first of her books about the Austin family. It introduces the characters Vicky Austin and her three siblings, and Maggy Hamilton, an orphan...
(1960) ISBN 0-374-34929-0
- The Moon by Night
The Moon by Night is the title of a young adult novel by Madeleine L'Engle. Published in 1963, it is the second novel about Vicky Austin and her family, taking place between the events of Meet the Austins and The Young Unicorns , and more or less concurrently with the O'Keefe family novel The...
(1963) ISBN 0-374-35049-3
- The Young Unicorns
The Young Unicorns is the title of a young adult suspense novel by Madeleine L'Engle. It is the third novel about the Austin family, taking place between the events of The Moon by Night and A Ring of Endless Light...
(1968) ISBN 0-374-38778-8
- A Ring of Endless Light
A Ring of Endless Light is a 1980 novel by Madeleine L'Engle. The book tells of a girl named Vicky and her struggle to understand life and significance in the universe as she deals with her dying grandfather, while at the same time finding love....
(1980) ISBN 0-374-36299-8 (Newbery HonorThe John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association . The award is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The award has been given since 1922. ...
Book)
- The Anti-Muffins (1980) ISBN 0-8298-0415-3
- The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas (1984) ISBN 0-87788-843-4)
- Troubling a Star
Troubling a Star is the last full length novel in the Austin family series by Madeleine L'Engle. The young adult suspense thriller, published in 1994, reunites L'Engle's most frequent protagonist, Vicky Austin, with Adam Eddington, both of whom become enmeshed in international intrigue as they...
(1994) ISBN 0-374-37783-9
- A Full House: An Austin Family Christmas (1999) ISBN 0-87788-020-4)
The two Christmas books are shorter works, heavily illustrated but not quite
picture bookA picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. The images in picture books use a range of media such as oil paints, acrylics, watercolor and pencil.Two of the earliest books with something like the format picture books still retain now...
s in the sense of having pictures on every page. The events in each of these stories take place prior to the events of
Meet the Austins.
Other fiction
Katherine Forrester series:
- The Small Rain
The Small Rain is a semi-autobiographical novel by Madeleine L'Engle, about the many difficulties in the life of talented pianist Katherine Forrester between the ages of 10 and 19. Published in 1945 by the Vanguard Press, it was the first of L'Engle's long list of books, and was reprinted in 1984...
(1945), ISBN 0-374-26637-9
- Prelude (1968), no ISBN, an adaptation of the first half of The Small Rain
- A Severed Wasp
A Severed Wasp A Severed Wasp A Severed Wasp (1982, is a novel by Madeleine L'Engle. It continues the story of a pianist, Katherine Forrester, who was first seen in The Small Rain. Now a widow in her seventies, Katherine Forrester Vigneras returns to New York City in retirement from concert touring...
(1982), ISBN 0-374-26131-8
Camilla Dickinson:
- Camilla Dickinson
Camilla Dickinson, also published as Camilla , is a 1951 novel by Madeleine L'Engle. Camilla Dickinson, a fifteen-year-old New Yorker, narrates an important approximately three week period of her life in November 1950....
(1951) ISBN 0-440-01020-9, later republished as Camilla
- A Live Coal in the Sea
A Live Coal in the Sea written by Madeleine L'Engle and published in 1996, is the sequel to Camilla , one of L'Engle's earliest novels. While Camilla was written for a young adult audience, A Live Coal in the Sea is an adult novel...
(1996) ISBN 0-374-18989-7
Single titles:
- Ilsa
Ilsa is a 1946 novel by Madeleine L'Engle. Its significance lies largely in its rarity, the book having been out of print for nearly sixty years. It was the author's second novel, published a year after The Small Rain.- Bibliographical data :...
(1946) (no ISBN)
- And Both Were Young
And Both Were Young is a novel by Madeleine L'Engle. It tells the story of a girl at boarding school in Switzerland and the relationship she develops with a boy she meets there.-Plot summary:...
(1949), ISBN 0-440-90229-0
- A Winter's Love (1957), ISBN 0-345-30644-9
- The Love Letters (1966), revised and reissued as Love Letters (2000), ISBN 0-87788-528-1
- The Other Side of the Sun (1971) ISBN 0-374-22805-1
- Dance in the Desert (1969, 1988), ISBN 0-374-41684-2
- Certain Women (1992, 1996) ISBN 0-374-12025-0
- The Joys of Love (2008) ISBN 0-374-33870-1
(
Note: some ISBNs given are for later paperback editions, since no such numbering existed when L'Engle's earlier titles were published in hardcover.)
The Crosswicks Journals
- A Circle of Quiet (1972), ISBN 0-374-12374-8
- The Summer of the Great-grandmother (1974), ISBN 0-374-27174-7
- The Irrational Season (1977), ISBN 0-374-17733-3
- Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage (1988), ISBN 0-374-28020-7
--68.37.32.175 (talk) 23:20, 30 November 2011 (UTC)meow--68.37.32.175 (talk) 23:20, 30 November 2011 (UTC)
The Genesis Trilogy
- And It Was Good (1983) ISBN 0-87788-046-8
- A Stone for a Pillow (1986) ISBN 0-87788-789-6
- Sold into Egypt (1989) ISBN 0-87788-766-7
Poetry
- Lines Scribbled on an Envelope (1969)
- The Weather of the Heart (1978)
- A Cry Like a Bell (1987)
- The Ordering of Love: The New and Collected Poems of Madeleine L'Engle (2005) (includes reprints from the above)
Religion, the arts, and more autobiography
- Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art (1982)
- The Glorious Impossible (1990) ISBN 0-671-68690-9 ISBN 978-0-671-68690-1
- The Rock That Is Higher: Story as Truth (1993)
- Penguins and Golden Calves: Icons and Idols in Antarctica and Other Spiritual Places (1996, 2003)
- Friends For The Journey (1997) (co-writer) ISBN 0-89283-986-4
- Bright Evening Star: Mystery of the Incarnation (2001) ISBN 0-87788-079-4
- Madeleine L'Engle Herself: Reflections on a Writing Life (2001) Compiled by Carole Chase. ISBN 0-87788-157-X
Further reading
- Madeleine L'Engle Herself: Reflections on a Writing Life by Madeleine L'Engle and Carole F. Chase ISBN 0-87788-157-X
- Scholastic BookFiles: A Reading Guide to A Wrinkle in Time ISBN 0-439-46364-5
- Christian Mythmakers: C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
, Madeleine L'Engle, J. R. R. TolkienJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
, George MacDonaldGeorge MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister.Known particularly for his poignant fairy tales and fantasy novels, George MacDonald inspired many authors, such as W. H. Auden, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, E. Nesbit and Madeleine L'Engle. It was C.S...
, G. K. ChestertonGilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....
and Others by Rolland Hein ISBN 0-940895-48-X
External links