I just read on the news that author Madeleine L'Engle passed away today. She died of natural causes and was 88 years old.
Madeleine L'Engle was truly one of the best authors of the 20th century. Her most famous work is A Wrinkle In Time, for which she won the Newbery Medal in 1963. Wrinkle was followed by 4 other books in the series (I seem to be missing books 4 and 5 on my shelf. Have to take care of that). L'Engle's work is considered Young Adult fiction, but I strongly believe them to be misplaced in the YA section (I find it a bit irritating that any book with a minor as a protagonist is automatically labeled Young Adult or Children's). Her books and themes have something to offer readers of all ages and every time I read them I get something else out of them.
In children's writing circles, L'Engle is considered an inspiration. Rumor has it that over a dozen publishers passed up A Wrinkle in Time before Farrar, Straus, and Giroux picked it up. Then it won the Newbery Medal and the other publishers were feeling a bit foolish for passing on it. The Wrinkle series opened the doors of science (string theory! Tesseracts!) to children worldwide, and I think Meg Murray, the main character, is one of the strongest female protagonists in Young Adult literature.
L'Engle's Newbery Acceptance Speech is positively inspiring. L'Engle was also active in issues of challenging readers to think and the power of words. She gave a groundbreaking lecture at the Library of Congress in 1983 called "Dare to be Creative" about censorship, education, and the responsibility of authors to, as T.S. Eliot put it, "Dare [to] disturb the universe."
If you haven't had a chance to read any of L'Engle's wonderful works, go ahead and take the opportunity to do so. You won't regret it.
Rest in peace, Madeleine.
Posted by Shelby at September 7, 2007 01:41 PMI can't remember when and where during my elementary school life but I remember A Wrinkle in Time being read to us.
Posted by: Kat at September 7, 2007 09:34 PMI think A Wrinkle in Time was a staple of elementary school reading classes...
I only recently became aware of there being a fourth book in the series, and now there's a fifth? Wow. Hopefully there'll be an omnibus edition at some point.