quote:Author Madeleine L’Engle died last night in Connecticut, at the age of 89. Best known for her 1963 Newbery Award winner A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels, L’Engle was the author of more than 60 books for adults and young readers, most of which were published by FSG. This spring, the Square Fish imprint of Holtzbrinck reissued L'Engle's Time Quintet in new editions.
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Oh, how sad that we will never have another book from her. I hope her family finds peace with her death.
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Wrinkle in Time was one of the first Science Fiction books I read--and I read it again and again, and everything else by her I could get my hands on, including some of her adult literature.
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I have long told people that I have two others whom I greatly admire...Orson Scott Card and Madeleine L'Engle. The news of her death really saddens me.
And I thought it was a quartet... Wrinkle in Time, Wind in the Door, Swiftly Tilting Planet and Many Waters.
Edit to add: Just looked it up... They are now considering An Acceptable Time (about Meg and Calvin's daughter Poly) to be the fifth in the "Time Quintet."
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A Wrinkle in Time was my introduction to science fiction. I can't tell you how many times I re-read the tesseract section as a child trying to wrap my mind around that.
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I always felt so closely connected to Vicky Austin, a character from the non-time books. She is, by far, my favorite fictional character, I think, because I empathize so much with her.
I have read all of the Austin books (and the time books) more times than I could count.
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She wasn't the first science fiction writer I discovered -- Bradbury and Heinlein found my shelves first -- but she was a much-read one.
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quote:Originally posted by Chris Bridges: She wasn't the first science fiction writer I discovered -- Bradbury and Heinlein found my shelves first -- but she was a much-read one.
I read AWIT at age 11. Bradbury about 1-2 years later, and Heinlein at about age 15. (Unfortunately, I started with several of his later books, which led to at least one disastrous dinner table conversation. Those books should have R ratings!)
My first OSC book was given to me when I was 13.
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Her books played a very important role in my childhood. They were well-loved by my friends and I.
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I've read A Wrinkle in Time, but currently all I can remember about it is "tesseract" and that brain that was controlling people.
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Oh I don't know what to say. My middle daughter just Read A Wrinkle in Time and I was so happy to be able to watch her read a book I loved in childhood.
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This is so sad. I JUST started rereading the only one of her books I have left(my parents, the idiots, got rid of the others, including A Wrinkle in Time).
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"A Wrinkle in Time" was one of the first scifi books I read as well and definitely paved the way for my love of the genre. I read each of her books more than once, the original probably a dozen times. I still remember big parts of them, even though it's been over a dozen years since I last read them. They were also inspirational in the start of my writing. She will be missed.
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Now we'll never know what Charles Wallace ended up doing (in later books, he is away on a secret government project and Ms. L'Engle said someday she might tell his stories).
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I was at a retreat with her several years ago and she told us parts of what was coming next for the Murray/O'Keefe families. But she had a stroke soon after that and never finished the book that she was working on.
My friend Mike and I did a reading from her play Journey with Jonah at that retreat and she asked if she could sit with us at lunch afterwards. I managed to contain my fangirl gushing enough to have a real conversation.
I think A Ring of Endless Light and A Svered Wasp are my favorites of hers. And maybe Certain Women.
Edit: Also her nonfiction Genesis trilogy. And the Crosswicks Journals. And one particular poem, whose name I can't remember, but has a great line about water and Incarnation.
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I almost cried when I read that at work. One of my most memorable moments from school was when a teacher in 6th grade introduced me to "A Wrinkle in Time" and the rest of her books. All through elementary school, teachers had thought I was too withdrawn and didn't like that I spent so much time reading. So L'Engle's books were the first ones I ever read with the approval and encouragement from a teacher.
Thankfully, her books will live on though she has left us.
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I wrote to her when I was 10 and asked if tesseracts were real. She said they were. I reread A Wrinkle in Time so many times it wasn't even funny. Strangely, I never liked any of her other books, but that one was perfect.
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"In this strange land where all are born to die? Each tree and leaf and star show how The universe is part of this one cry, That every life is noted and cherished, And nothing loved is ever lost or perished."
May she rest in a ring of endless light.
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I didn't discover her until I was in my mid-twenties and already fully converted to science fiction since before I hit puberty, but I still loved her books. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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And thus passes probably the most influential writer in my life after Lewis... I need to go out and find some more of her poetry.
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This makes me sad. I always loved AWIT- I never read it that often like I do my other favorite books. But for some inexplicable reason I could not bear the thought of getting rid of it. They are so beautiful and thought-provoking.
This is one reader who feels the world much smaller- the ideas and beauty of her books always connected to a larger world that was controlled by our day-to-day actions. And without her brilliant imagination- the world is much smaller indeed.
But alas- her books do give me hope- hope that someday some things might make sense and that all will be made clear- and I look forward to that day with passion and anxiety.
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I read AWIT for a school project, and I wasn't sure I like it. But I found myself think about it a lot, and kept coming back to it. It ended up being one of my all time favorite books, and I loved the other books in the series as well. ASTP was my favorite, though.
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A Ring of Endless Light is easily my favorite: one I loved as a young adolescent and which I know I will re-read throughout my adulthood. Samuel Bush, that was exactly the line running through my head when I read her obituary: "Nothing loved is ever lost or perished."
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quote:Originally posted by Liz B: A Ring of Endless Light is easily my favorite: one I loved as a young adolescent and which I know I will re-read throughout my adulthood. Samuel Bush, that was exactly the line running through my head when I read her obituary: "Nothing loved is ever lost or perished."
That's my favorite of her books as well. I think that line sums up my feelings about her death quite succinctly. Although I am very sad that we will never have another book by her, I am immensely happy that she gave us all that she did.
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I remember my sister reading Wrinkle to me when I was a boy. I'm sad to hear this. But it sounds like she lived a long and full life, and I know she left behind great work which will be long remembered.
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I'll fourth Ring of Endless Light as being a favorite. Her thoughts about death, and young love, were very powerful to me when I first read them. And Wrinkle in Time was definitely my first taste of sci-fi, and at the time, the whole tesseract thing made perfect sense. I'm grateful to her for being so able to speak clearly to my younger self about ridiculously-hard-to-conceive concepts. Posts: 3516 | Registered: Sep 2002
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She lived a really, really full life. And I know she is at peace in death-- everything she wrote spoke of the power of love and faith. But like all her fans, I am saddened to lose her.
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I'll have to dig out my battle worn copy of A Wrinkle in Time and re-read it. A few times.
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