Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle | |
---|---|
Christian fiction | |
Notable works | A Wrinkle in Time and sequels |
Notable awards | (1998) |
Spouse | |
Children | 3 (2 biological and 1 adopted) |
Madeleine L'Engle (
Early life
Madeleine L'Engle Camp was born in New York City on November 29, 1918, and named after her great-grandmother, Madeleine Margaret L'Engle, otherwise known as Mado.[3] Her maternal grandfather was Florida banker Bion Barnett, co-founder of Barnett Bank in Jacksonville, Florida. Her mother, a pianist, was also named Madeleine: Madeleine Hall Barnett. Her father, Charles Wadsworth Camp, was a writer, critic, and foreign correspondent who, according to his daughter, suffered lung damage from mustard gas during World War I.[a]
L'Engle wrote her first story aged five and began keeping a
The Camps traveled frequently. At one point, the family moved to a
Education, marriage, and family
L'Engle attended
The family moved to a 200-year-old farmhouse called Crosswicks in the small town of
Writing career
L'Engle determined to give up writing on her 40th birthday (November 1958) when she received yet another rejection notice. "With all the hours I spent writing, I was still not pulling my own weight financially." Soon she discovered both that she could not give it up and that she had continued to work on fiction subconsciously.[13]
The family returned to New York City in 1959 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 Time, which she completed by 1960. It was rejected more than thirty times before she handed it to John C. Farrar;[13] it was finally published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1962.[12]
In 1960 the Franklins moved to an apartment on the Upper West Side, in the Cleburne Building on West End Avenue.[14] From 1960 to 1966 (and again in 1986, 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.[citation needed]
During the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, L'Engle wrote dozens of books for children and adults. Four of the books for adults formed the Crosswicks Journals series of autobiographical memoirs. Of these, The Summer of the Great-grandmother (1974) discusses L'Engle's personal experience caring for her aged mother, and Two-Part Invention (1988) is a memoir of her marriage, completed after her husband's death from cancer on September 26, 1986.
On writing for children
Soon after winning the Newbery Medal for her 1962 "junior novel" A Wrinkle in Time, L'Engle discussed children's books in The New York Times Book Review.[15] The writer of a good children's book, she observed, may need to return to the "intuitive understanding of his own childhood," being childlike although not childish. She claimed, "It's often possible to make demands of a child that couldn't be made of an adult... A child will often understand scientific concepts that would baffle an adult. This is because he can understand with a leap of the imagination that is denied the grown-up who has acquired the little knowledge that is a dangerous thing." Of philosophy, etc., as well as science, "the child will come to it with an open mind, whereas many adults come closed to an open book. This is one reason so many writers turn to fantasy (which children claim as their own) when they have something important and difficult to say."[15]
Religious beliefs
L'Engle was a Christian who attended
Her views on divine punishment were similar to those of George MacDonald, 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."[18]
In 1982, L'Engle reflected on how suffering had taught her. She told how suffering a "lonely solitude" as a child taught her about the "world of the imagination" that enabled her to write for children. Later she suffered a "decade of failure" after her first books were published. It was a "bitter" experience, yet she wrote that she had "learned a lot of valuable lessons" that enabled her to persevere as a writer.[19]
Later years, death, and legacy
L'Engle was seriously injured in an automobile accident in 1991, but recovered well enough to visit Antarctica in 1992.[12] Her son, Bion Franklin, died on December 17, 1999, from the effects of prolonged alcoholism.[20] He was 47 years old.[21]
In her final years, L'Engle became unable to teach or travel due to reduced mobility from osteoporosis, especially after suffering an intracerebral 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.
L'Engle died of natural causes at Rose Haven, a
In 2018, her granddaughters Charlotte Jones Voiklis and Léna Roy published Becoming Madeleine: A Biography of the Author of A Wrinkle in Time by Her Granddaughters.[24]
A Light So Lovely: The Spiritual Legacy of Madeleine L’Engle by Sarah Arthur was also published in 2018.[25]
L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time was adapted into a film twice by Disney. A television film, directed by John Kent Harrison, premiered on May 10, 2004. When asked in an interview with Newsweek if the film "met her expectations", L'Engle said, "I have glimpsed it. ... I expected it to be bad, and it is."[26] A theatrical film, directed by Ava DuVernay, premiered March 9, 2018.[27]
In celebration of L'Engle's centenary year, Writing for Your Life hosted the inaugural Madeleine L'Engle Conference: Walking on Water on November 16, 2019, in New York City, New York, at All Angels' Church on the Upper West Side. Katherine Paterson served as the keynote speaker.[28]
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.
In 1985 she was a guest speaker at the
L'Engle received the annual
L'Engle was inducted into the
In a 2012 survey of School Library Journal readers, A Wrinkle in Time was voted the best children's novel after Charlotte's Web.[35][36]
In 2013, a crater on Mercury was named after L'Engle.[37]
At
The Madeleine L'Engle Collection
Since 1976, Wheaton College in Illinois has maintained a special collection of L'Engle's papers, and a variety of other materials, dating back to 1919.[39] 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.
In 2019, a collection of 43 linear feet of L'Engle's family, personal, and literary papers came to the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History at Smith College. They had been donated by her literary estate.[40]
Bibliographic overview
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
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.[42]
Works
Novels for young adults
Chronos & Kairos series:
- Chronos (The Austin Family Chronicles):
- ISBN 0-374-34929-0
- ISBN 0-374-35049-3
- 2.5. ISBN 0-87788-843-4)[b]
- 2.5.
- ISBN 0-374-38778-8
- ISBN 0-374-36299-8 (Newbery HonorBook)
- 4.5. ISBN 0-8298-0415-3
- 4.5.
- ISBN 0-374-37783-9
- 5.5. Miracle on 10th Street: And Other Christmas Writings (1998), a short story collection including The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas (1984) and A Full House: An Austin Family Christmas (1999)
- 5.6. ISBN 0-87788-020-4)[b]
- 5.7. "Rob Austin and the Millennium Bug", a short story included in the anthology Second Sight: Stories for a New Millennium (1999)
- Kairos (The Murry-O'Keefe Family Chronicles):
Note: Within the Kairos series, books 1-4 of the first generation plus An Acceptable Time are jointly titled the Time Quintet.- First-generation (Murry series):
- ISBN 0-374-38613-7
- ISBN 0-374-38443-6
- 2.5. Intergalactic P.S. 3 (1970) ISBN 0-525-63405-3
- 2.5. Intergalactic P.S. 3 (1970)
- ISBN 0-374-34796-4
- Second-generation (O'Keefe Family series):
- ISBN 0-374-30396-7
- ISBN 0-374-31868-9
- ISBN 0-374-33385-8
- ISBN 0-374-30027-5
- First-generation (Murry series):
Stand-alone releases:
- ISBN 0-440-90229-0
- The Journey with Jonah (1967) ISBN 0-374-33927-9
- ISBN 0-374-33870-1[44]
Novels
Katherine Forrester Vigneras series:
- ISBN 0-374-26637-9
- Prelude (1968), no ISBN, an adaptation of the first half of The Small Rain
- ISBN 0-374-26131-8
Camilla Dickinson series:
- ISBN 0-440-01020-9
- ISBN 0-374-18989-7
Stand-alones:
- ISBN 9-781504-049443
- ISBN 0-345-30644-9
- ISBN 0-87788-528-1
- The Other Side of the Sun (1971) ISBN 0-87788-615-6[45]
- ISBN 0-374-12025-0
Note: some ISBNs given are for later paperback editions, since no such numbering existed when L'Engle's earlier titles were published in hardcover.
Children's books
Picture books:
- ISBN 0-374-41684-2
- ISBN 0-671-68690-9
- The Other Dog (2001) ISBN 1-58717-040-X
- A Book, Too, Can Be a Star (2022), a picture book biography of Madeleine L'Engle
Short stories
Collections:
- The Sphinx at Dawn: Two Stories (1982), collection of 2 short stories:
- "Pakko's Camel", "The Sphinx at Dawn"
- 101st Miracle: Early Short Stories by Madeleine L'Engle (1999), collection of 12 short stories: ISBN 1-88091-343-7
- "Poor Little Saturday", "Six Good People", and more. (Although there is an ISBN listed, there is no record of this title ever being published.)
- The Moment of Tenderness (2020), collection of 18 short stories
Poems
Collections:
- The Weather of the Heart: Selected Poems (1978)
- Wintersong: Christmas Readings (1996, with ISBN 1-57383-332-0
- Mothers And Daughters (1997) ISBN 1-89683-605-4
- ISBN 0-87788-086-7
- "Lines Scribbled on an Envelope", "The Weather of the Heart", "A Cry Like a Bell", and more
Plays
- 18 Washington Square South: A Comedy In One Act (1944)
Non-fiction
- Autobiographies and memoirs
Crosswicks Journals series:
- ISBN 0-374-12374-8
- ISBN 0-374-27174-7
- ISBN 0-374-17733-3
- ISBN 0-374-28020-7(U.K. and Australia title: From This Day Forward)
Stand-alones:
- Glimpses of Grace: Daily Thoughts and Reflections (1996, with ISBN 0-06065-281-0
- ISBN 0-89283-986-4
- My Own Small Place: Developing the Writing Life (1998) ISBN 0-87788-571-0(Although there is a ISBN for this title, there is no record of it having ever been released.)
- L'Engle, Madeleine (2001). ISBN 0-87788-157-X.
- Religion
Genesis Trilogy:
- And It Was Good: Reflections on Beginnings (1983) ISBN 0-87788-046-8
- ISBN 0-87788-789-6
- ISBN 0-87788-766-7
Stand-alones:
- Everyday Prayers (1974) ISBN 0-81921-154-0
- Prayers for Sunday (1975) ISBN 0-81921-153-2
- Spirit And Light: Essays In Historical Theology (1976) ISBN 0-81640-310-4
- Ladder of Angels: Stories from the Bible Illustrated by Children of the World (1979) ISBN 0-06255-619-3
- ISBN 0-87788-918-X
- Trailing Clouds of Glory: Spiritual Values in Children's Literature (1985) ISBN 0-66432-721-4
- The Rock that is Higher: Story as Truth (1993)
- Anytime Prayers (1994) ISBN 0-87788-055-7
- ISBN 0-87788-631-8
- ISBN 0-87788-079-4
- Miracle on 10th Street: And Other Christmas Writings (1998) ISBN 0-87788-531-1
- Includes two short stories about the Austin Family Chronicles series.
- A Prayerbook for Spiritual Friends (1999, with ISBN 0-80663-892-3
- Mothers and Sons (2000) ISBN 0-87788-567-2
- Writing
- Dare To Be Creative!: A Lecture Presented At The Library Of Congress, November 16, 1983 (1984) ISBN 0-84440-456-X
- Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?: The Celebrated Speech (2012)
Adaptations
- A Ring of Endless Light (2002), telefilm directed by Greg Beeman, based on young adult novel A Ring of Endless Light
- A Wrinkle in Time (2003), telefilm directed by John Kent Harrison, based on young adult novel A Wrinkle in Time
- Camilla Dickinson (2012), film directed by Cornelia Duryée, based on young adult novel Camilla Dickinson
- A Wrinkle in Time (2018), film directed by Ava DuVernay, based on young adult novel A Wrinkle in Time
Notes
- ^ In a 2004 New Yorker profile of the writer, relatives of L'Engle disputed the mustard gas story, stating instead that Camp's illness was caused by alcoholism.[4]
- ^ a b The two Christmas books are shorter works, heavily illustrated but not actually picture books. The events in each of these stories take place prior to the events of Meet the Austins.
- ^ A Swiftly Tilting Planet won the award for paperback Children's Literature. From 1980 to 1983 in National Book Award history, there were dual awards for hardcover and paperback books in many categories. Most of the paperback award-winners were reprints, including this one.
References
- ^ "UPI Almanac for Friday, Nov. 29, 2019". United Press International November 29, 2019. Archived from the original on December 24, 2019. Retrieved January 11, 2020.
…author Madeleine L'Engle in 1918
- ^ Martin, Douglas (September 8, 2007). "Madeleine L'Engle, Children's Writer, Is Dead at 88". The New York Times. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
- ISBN 0-374-27174-7.
- ^ Zarin, Cynthia (April 12, 2004). "The Storyteller". The New Yorker. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
- ISBN 1-880913-31-3.
- ISBN 0-374-12374-8.
- ISBN 0-374-27174-7.
- ^ Horn Book Magazine. Archived from the originalon May 29, 2008. Retrieved May 25, 2008.
- ^ "Learn About Madeleine L'Engle, Beloved Author of A Wrinkle in Time". Madeleine L'Engle. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
- ^ Madeleine L'Engle at the Internet Broadway Database
- ISBN 1-880913-31-3.
- ^ ISBN 1-880913-31-3.
- ^ a b c "Madeleine L'Engle". Awards & Honors: 2004 National Humanities Medalist. National Endowment for the Humanities. Retrieved June 19, 2013.
- ^ Ohrstrom, Lysandra (March 7, 2008). "West End Home of A Wrinkle in Time Author Sells for $4 M". Observer. Archived from the original on May 5, 2009.
- ^ a b L'Engle, Madeleine (May 12, 1963). "How's One to Tell?". The New York Times. p. BR21.
- ^ Wilson, John (September 1, 2003). "A Distorted Predestination". Christianity today.
- ^ Eccleshare, Julia (October 2, 2007). "Madeleine L'Engle: Bestselling children's author, renowned for A Wrinkle in Time". The Guardian.
- ^ Morgan, Christopher W; Peterson, Robert A. Hell Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents Eternal Punishment. p. 171.
- ^ Madeleine L'Engle, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith & Art (New York: Bantam Books, 1982), 58.
- ^ Zarin, Cynthia (April 12, 2004). "The storyteller: fact, fiction, and the books of Madeleine L'Engle". The New Yorker. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
- ^ "Madeleine L'Engle". Religion & Ethics News Weekly. PBS. November 17, 2000.
- ^ "Esther Mitgang; Madeleine L'Engle". Publishers Weekly (obituaries). June 21, 2007. Archived from the original on January 13, 2008. Retrieved September 7, 2007.
- ^ "Madeleine L'Engle, writer and Episcopalian, dies at 88". EpiscopalChurch.org. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
- ^ "Becoming Madeleine Book Launch Information". Madeleine L'Engle. January 19, 2018. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
- ^ Johnson, Jeffrey (May 23, 2019). "The spirit of Madeleine L'Engle". Christian Century. Retrieved July 18, 2019.
- ^ "Madeleine L'Engle". Newsweek. May 6, 2004.
- ^ "Why A Wrinkle in Time Will Change Hollywood". TIME.com. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
- ^ "The 2019 Madeleine L'Engle Conference — Walking on Water". Writing for Your Life. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
- ^ "No. 47369". The London Gazette. November 4, 1977. p. 13902.
- ^ "One Great Read Programs and Events A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle". www.tcpl.lib.in.us. Tippecanoe County Public Library. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
- ^ "A Commencement for the Millennium". Haverford News. Haverford College. 2002. Archived from the original on October 17, 2007. Retrieved September 7, 2007.
- ^ "Award Winners and Nominees". World Fantasy Convention. 2010. Archived from the original on December 1, 2010. Retrieved February 4, 2011.
- ^ "1998 Margaret A. Edwards Award Winner". Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA); American Library Association (ALA). 1998. Archived from the original on March 24, 2017. Retrieved September 26, 2013.
- ^ "Hall of Fame". Empire State Center for the Book. May 1, 2017. Retrieved February 3, 2020.
- ^ Bird, Elizabeth (June 28, 2012). "Top 100 Children's Novels #2: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle". A Fuse 8 Production. Retrieved June 19, 2013.
- ^ "SLJ's Top 100 Children's Novels" (PDF). School Library Journal (poster presentation of reader poll results). Fuse #8. August 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 5, 2014. Retrieved June 19, 2013.
- ^ "L'Engle". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. NASA. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
- ^ Smith College Libraries. "Madeleine L'Engle Travel Research Fellowships". Retrieved June 22, 2020.
- ^ "About the Collection – Madeleine L'Engle". Wheaton. Archived from the original on November 12, 2007.
- ^ Smith College Special Collections. "Collection: Madeleine L'Engle papers | Smith College Finding Aids". Retrieved June 22, 2020.
- ISBN 0-374-34796-4.
- ISBN 1-880913-31-3.
- ^ "National Book Awards – 1980". National Book Foundation. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
- ^ "The Joys of Love". Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Archived from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved September 17, 2008.
- ISBN 0-87788-615-6.
Further reading
- Hein, Rolland (2002). Christian Mythmakers: C. S. Lewis, Madeleine L'Engle, J. R. R. Tolkien, George MacDonald, G. K. Chesterton and Others. Cornerstone Press Chicago. ISBN 0-940895-48-X.
- Soares, Manuela (2003). A Reading Guide to A Wrinkle in Time. Scholastic BookFiles. ISBN 0-439-46364-5.
External links
- Official website
- Madeleine L'Engle at IMDb
- Madeleine L'Engle at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Madeleine L'Engle at Library of Congress, with 32 library catalog records
- "Madeleine L'Engle | Authors | Macmillan". Macmillan US.
- "Obituary". The Times. September 25, 2007.
- "I Dare You". Newsweek (interview). May 6, 2004.
- "Madeleine L'Engle – WaterBrook & Multnomah". Random House. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
- "Madeleine L'Engle | February 10, 2012 | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS" (interview). PBS. November 17, 2000. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
- "Fantasy and Faith". First Things. November 2007.
- "Madeleine L'Engle Papers, 1918–2006". Wheaton College Archives & Special Collections.
- Madeleine L'Engle papers at the Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College
- Interview with Madeline L'Engle about her 1990 Kerlan Award, All About Kids! TV Series #47 (1990)