Author Madeleine L’Engle has died.
This interview makes me very sad that I never had the chance to meet her.
What do you think about her work?
Author Madeleine L’Engle has died.
This interview makes me very sad that I never had the chance to meet her.
What do you think about her work?
The Time Quartet and Austin kids books really defined my childhood in many ways, and they are still very important to me today. I liked religious allegory and science fiction etc. stuff in L”Engle before any other books, and I think Vicky Austin was the first female lead I ever related to. I think Charles Wallace was my first fictional friend / “literary crush”. I would really like (and plan) to read more of her work.
She will obviously be remembered, and I hope people don’t forget her insistence that she did not write for any particular age group.
She feels at once old-fashioned and very genuine to me, kind of like Elizabeth Enright. I’m rereading Meet the Austins, and the Austin family is omg so functional and loving, with adults who are in charge and responsible and who communicate well and earnestly with their kids. Even Harry Potter isn’t as safe and wholesome. You don’t see that so much in YA today. But within that framework, the whole emotional range is still there, anger and sadness and all.
Her work is fundamentally reassuring, making sense of science and religion and the supernatural and insisting it all fits together. I don’t find it ultimately believeable now, but I did when I was a teenager, because she got the emotions right.
She was a firecracker, that one!
I’ve just recently begun reading her work. I’ve just finished A Wind in the Door and will be starting A Swiftly Tilting Planet shortly. They are definitely heart-pounding!
I have an entire bookshelf for her books — of course, I loved A Wrinkle in Time, but my favorites were some of her adult fiction — The Small Rain and A Severed Wasp, for instance — and her Crosswicks journals. Her books are comforting and comfortable like nothing else I’ve ever read. And I consider her my earliest writing and storytelling inspiration.
Besides her many fine books, of which A Wrinkle in Time remains my favorite, she wrote one of the great lines of the world. I use it as a sig file quote, and I strive to practice it:
“Love isn’t what you feel. Love is what you do.”
-Madeleine L’Engle, The Wind in the Door
I first read Madeleine L’Engle in the second grade, when my teacher handed me a dog-eared copy of A Wrinkle in Time. I’ve been reading it ever since. It was my first foray into science fiction, I think, and the series continues to fascinate me. Two of my other favorites of hers were “The Young Unicorns” which scared the crap out of me when I was 10, and “A House Like A Lotus” which gave me my first glimpse of dissolusionment at 12. There is a scene in “Lotus” when Polly runs down Max’s driveway and cuts her feet on the gravel. That scene has stayed with me since, and it is still the first thing I think of whenever anybody says dissolusionment. I so appreciate the fact that I have yet to read all of her work- it is comforting to know that she still has wisdom out there I can access.
We read her books aloud as a group in Gifted & Talented reading in 4th grade. Everybody was assigned a part to read. Haven’t read them since then, but I always liked them…
Sad to lose one of the greats.
I LOVE a wrinkle in time. I first read her books when I was on 5th grade. She was my moms favorite author and so my mom passed on to me all of her books. She will be missed 🙂
I enjoyed A Wrinkle in Time. It was probably one of the first YA sci-fi stories I ever read. When I was moving last week, I can remember packing it up along with all my other books and thinking that I really needed to read it again.
I loved her work, read as much of it as I could get my hands on, children’s books, adult novels, the exquisite memoirs, even her poetry. When I was 8, I discovered “A Wrinkle in Time” and practically memorized the thing. There was nothing like it then (1966). I had the great good fortune to meet her briefly about 19 years ago at an Episcopal Church women’s conference in Texas where she spoke. She was an astounding person, graceful and humble. Just lovely.
Madeleine L’Engle
Laurie: “This interview makes me very sad that I never had the chance to meet her.”
I met Madeleine L’Engle after she delivered the message at the Episcopal church service at Sewanee, Tennessee, 20-odd years ago. She was a very special woman … and writer. I especially enjoyed reading The Summer of the Great-Grandmother, about the summer Madeleine’s own mother was dying at 90. And today I picked up A Wrinkle in Time to re-read.
Those books inspired me so much… I remember being eight years old and finding a ancient dusty copy of “A Wrinkle In Time” in our ancient dusty school library. It was the first time I really enjoyed a book, even though it was a little hard to understand all the underpinnings at first.
May she rest in peace.
I loved the books desperately as a kid. Read Wrinkle in Time again as an adult and just found it incorrigibly dated and weird despite being very much a children’s-book person. Then taught it to fifth-graders and they loved it every bit as desperately as I had, which goes to show that grownups don’t necessarily understand anything.
wow. since you asked that, i honestly haven’t read any of her novels. i just remarked to my mom the other day, “i want to read a wrinkle in time,” but i haven’t gotten it yet. i did see the movie version of a ring of endless light though. it was good, but i need to read the book too. and i want to see the movie of a wrinkle in time after i read the book. her books do look interesting though. i’ll have to make a trip to the bookstore to get it. =) ♥
Ohhhh I love Madeleine L’Engle. She is definitely one of my favorite authors and she seemed like she would be such an interesting person to talk to. I haven’t read any of her books in a while…I will have to get some next weekend when I go home.
The world has lost a literary gift. I need to make a point to read more of her work. I was wondering what you thought about her take on the Harry Potter books. I was a little surprised at her comment about them and I was wondering if someone else had some insight into this that I was missing.
Favorite L’Engle Title
I haven’t seen anyone else mention this one, but A SWIFTLY TILTING PLANET made a huge impact on me as a teenager, and images/ideas from it have stayed with me all these years.
I like to think Ms. L’Engle is having tea with Mrs. Whatsit now…..
I read her book, Wrinkle In Time for required reading before 7th grade, last year. I thought it was great, but confusing at times and was glad to read it with a class.
If you enjoy her work read Philip Pullman, he is amazing and highly under-rated!
I literally just finished Speak 5 minutes ago, and enjoyed it. Realistic fiction is not normally my favorite genre, but I enjoyed this book greatly, and I will look your other books in my school library.
Also, another great artist, the great tenor, Pavarotti died recently as well, though I’m probably the only one of my age group who know or cares.