Madeleine L’Engle died yesterday at the age of 89.
How can I even begin to describe the impact that L’Engle had on readers? Or on me?
She wrote some of everything: novels, nonfiction, poems, plays. She wrote for everyone:
young children, tweeners, young adults, adults. She wrote in a variety of genres: autobiography, coming-of-age, contemporary fiction, science fiction, Christian fiction. All told, she published more than 60 titles, beginning with The Small Rain in 1945.
In 1962, dissatisfied with the dearth of female protagonists in science fiction , L’Engle set about changing the stereotype with Meg Murray, a prickly teen girl whose father had mysteriously disappeared. With her peculiar little brother Charles Wallace and her neighbor Calvin, Meg embarked on a journey to rescue her father. But Meg’s father was nowhere on earth, and to travel there, she had to apply some unusual perspectives to the rules of time and space; hence the title for the book, A Wrinkle in Time.
Twenty-six different publishers rejected A Wrinkle in Time. They have been kicking themselves nonstop for the past 45 years. It was to become L’Engle’s signature title, a book that has maintained a strong following of readers for nearly half a century.
What made L’Engle’s writing so very good? Was it her characters? Her stories? Her language, her themes, her settings?
All of the above, really, which is why she has endured: L’Engle was a master of all of those different parts of a story that work in harmony to drawn in readers. She wrote something for everyone.
Her style was accessible and understandable without being unintelligent. Her characters were believable and compelling and altogether human (except for the characters who weren’t human, of course). Her settings were vibrant and vivid, no matter where the action took place: on the stages of New York, in the pre-diluvian Middle East, in the middle of a mitochondrion, even in another dimension.
And her themes! Fantastic, supernatural, or perfectly ordinary—it doesn’t matter, L’Engle always made them profound and personal. When I first discovered L’Engle, my eight-year-old mind was blown away by her treatment of concepts such as familial love, sacrifice, and authority. And when I started reading her adult works in my twenties, I was deeply moved by her grace in discussing romantic love, fidelity, religious faith, and self-discipline.
If you have never had the pleasure of reading a L’Engle book, you have a great many places to start. Leave a comment here and I’ll get back to you with the best one for your mood and tastes. Or plunge right in with A Wrinkle in Time.
Check the WRL catalog for A Wrinkle in Time
Check the WRL catalog for books by Madeleine L’Engle
Blogging for a Good Book 
i loved her works
i will miss her deeply
I’m so sad to hear this. She’s not known here in Israel, so I didn’t know she died. I read many, if not all, her books in Junior High. I’ll try and find them now, I remember enjoying them so much!
[…] of the Williamsburg Regional Library, VA writes a nice farewell blog entry on Madeline […]
Hello!,
Since my 5th grade teacher (Mr. Dyer ) read this book aloud to my class back in 1964, this book has been a part of my life for the last 45 years. I have tried to revisit Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin every few years and am doing it once again. I want to thank Madeleine L’Engle for inspiring me throughout the years. Because of her I studied Physics, Astronomy, and all things related to Einstein, Euclid, Copernicus, time travel, and the universe in general. She is the shining example of how the written word can change and direct a human life. I thank you for all my journeys in life that began with A Wrinkle In Time.
Loren C. Michaels
L’Engle’s books have touched me in many ways. She had great gifts and her readers were the beneficiaries. I had the honor of meeting her very briefly when she autographed my copy of A Wrinkle in Time and dedicated it to my husband Calvin.
i absolutely love madeleine l’engle!! i’m doing a powerpoint in memorabilia of her. :)