Madeline L'Engle

My very favorite author, Madeline L'Engle, died yesterday at the age of 88. Three of my family alerted me to it. My beautiful niece, Beth (on the right, another beautiful niece, Alana, is on the left), to whom I gave the Wrinkle in Time series in - hmm - 1998 or 99 (i remember where i was sitting when i wrote the note to Beth telling her of my love for Ms. L'Engle's books and hoping very much that she would love them as dearly as I.), her mom (my SIL), Debbie, and Rob. I read the articles and cried a bit. Madeline L'Engle was 88 when she died, and from what I've read of her and from her autobiographical novels, she lived a life that truly meant something. A full life. I am happy for her. And i mourn for the rest of us - those that knew her, and those of us whose life was made fuller through her books.

I can't remember the first time I read Wrinkle in Time, Wind in the Door, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet. I think i was in 5th or 6th grade. I've bought them more times than i can count for friends children and family members. Madeline L'Engle never wrote down to kids. She wrote for everyone. I still enjoy her books and read them once every 3 or 4 years. There is a magic to them. I still wish for the day when there really are Tesseracts as she describes in Wrinkle.

For a list of her works, you can go to wikipedia. Another aspect of her books that i greatly enjoy is how so many of them entwine. there are characters that are in many of the books - they are interrelated. it doesn't feel contrived. it doesn't feel contrived, it just feels natural. I i was in high school when Many Waters came out and was delighted that there was another book to the Wrinkle Trilogy (it actually fits between Wind and Swiftly chronologically). What's extra cool about that book - at least the one i got back in high school and maybe the ones out now too is that there is a sort of family tree in it that shows who connects where in most of her books. Many Waters talked about death in a way that resonated so completely with me that I have talked to Irene about it the way Ms. L'Engle talked about it in that book.

I was in college when An Acceptable Time came out - that is a book that goes with both the Wrinkle books and the O'Keefe books (Arm of the Starfish, Dragons in the Waters, House Like a Lotus).

I think that House Like a Lotus was the first book i remember having a lesbian character - and has the main character learn to accept it. I was 14 when that book came out and i think i was 15 or 16 when i read it. I haven't re-read the O'Keefe books in a while. Probably time for me to do that.

I greatly enjoyed her autobiographical books as well (referred to as The Crosswicks Journals). I think her children's book The Other Dog came out in 2005 . It's got such fun illustrations and is a great book - from her dog's perspective.

in her wiki was this sentence: "A theme 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." perhaps this is another reason that I have so deeply enjoyed her books - this is probably the closest thing to what i, personally, believe.

I am deeply saddened by the loss of Ms. L'Engle, but am so happy and thankful for all she gave me and gives to countless others. She will live on as her books continue to thrill and delight children and adults alike as long as there are books.

and just a little side note...between 1990 and 2000, A Wrinkle in Time was 22nd on the 100 most challenged & banned books list! all the more reason to get it and read it *beam*