According to the Associated Press today, Madeleine L’Engle, the author best known for her books A WRINKLE IN TIME and A SWIFTLY TILTING PLANET, passed away today at age 88.
Madeleine L’Engle
(11/29/1918 – 09/07/2007)
She was by far and away one of my favorite science fiction/fantasy writers, especially when it came to the Murry family from A WRINKLE IN TIME. I started reading her books back in the 3rd grade or so, re-reading them again every couple of years for just the pure joy and fascination of them.
I love that she never wrote down to her audience – she never considered herself a children’s author to begin with as stated in a 1993 Associated Press interview:
“In my dreams, I never have an age,” she said. “I never write for any age group in mind. … When you underestimate your audience, you’re cutting yourself off from your best work.”
She also liked to have her characters quote from major writers and thinkers, such as Shakespeare and Dante, which helped push the reader a little to go out and read the rest of such works for themselves. She never just wrote a basic children’s story, with the characters needing to just go from A to B to C to accomplish the plot. Each novel has levels and subtexts along with the main, allowing you to read it over and over over the years in order to get all the subtle meanings and nuances.
One of my favorite lines, of course, is the classic “It was a dark and stormy night” that begins A WRINKLE IN TIME. (Originally used in a book in the early 1800’s and then later as the beginning line of the infamous Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for the ‘best’ florid, pompous, and formulaic prose, L’Engle uses it both tongue-in-cheek and seriously at the same time – quite an accomplishment.)
Madeleine L’Engle gave me my first “taste” of how well science fiction could be written even when “couched” as kid’s book – her books will always be ones I judge others by. She was also a great example for persevering when you have a wonderful story to tell: A WRINKLE IN TIME was turned down by dozens of publishers before it saw the light of day. She will be missed… And if you’ve never read her work, in any of the many genres they encompassed, be it sci fi, fantasy, biography, or children’s literature, you don’t know what you’re missing!
For more information on this author, check out the Official Madeleine L’Engle website
Here is just a small sampling of the many, many books she wrote starting back in 1945 with THE SMALL RAIN to her last book published in 2005, THE ORDERING OF LIVE: THE NEW AND COLLECTED POEMS OF MADELEINE L’ENGLE.
