Madeleine L'Engle

Born

in New York City, New York, The United States

November 29, 1918

Died

September 06, 2007

Website

http://www.madeleinelengle.com/

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Biographies & Memoirs

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Madeleine L'Engle was an American writer best known for her Young Adult fiction, particularly the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters. Her works reflect her strong interest in modern science: tesseracts, for example, are featured prominently in A Wrinkle in Time, mitochondrial DNA in A Wind in the Door, organ regeneration in The Arm of the Starfish, and so forth.

"Madeleine was born on November 29th, 1918, and spent her formative years in New York City. Instead of her school work, she found that she would much rather be writing stories, poems and journals for herself, which was reflected in her grades (not the best). However, she was not discouraged.

At age 12, Madeleine L'Engle was an American writer best known for her Young Adult fiction, particularly the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters. Her works reflect her strong interest in modern science: tesseracts, for example, are featured prominently in A Wrinkle in Time, mitochondrial DNA in A Wind in the Door, organ regeneration in The Arm of the Starfish, and so forth.

"Madeleine was born on November 29th, 1918, and spent her formative years in New York City. Instead of her school work, she found that she would much rather be writing stories, poems and journals for herself, which was reflected in her grades (not the best). However, she was not discouraged.

At age 12, she moved to the French Alps with her parents and went to an English boarding school where, thankfully, her passion for writing continued to grow. She flourished during her high school years back in the United States at Ashley Hall in Charleston, South Carolina, vacationing with her mother in a rambling old beach cottage on a beautiful stretch of Florida Beach.

She went to Smith College and studied English with some wonderful teachers as she read the classics and continued her own creative writing. She graduated with honors and moved into a Greenwich Village apartment in New York. She worked in the theater, where Equity union pay and a flexible schedule afforded her the time to write! She published her first two novels during these years--A Small Rain and Ilsa--before meeting Hugh Franklin, her future husband, when she was an understudy in Anton Chekov's The Cherry Orchard. They married during The Joyous Season.

She had a baby girl and kept on writing, eventually moving to Connecticut to raise the family away from the city in a small dairy farm village with more cows than people. They bought a dead general store, and brought it to life for 9 years. They moved back to the city with three children, and Hugh revitalized his professional acting career. The family has kept the country house, Crosswicks, and continues to spend summers there.

As the years passed and the children grew, Madeleine continued to write and Hugh to act, and they to enjoy each other and life. Madeleine began her association with the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, where she has been the librarian and maintained an office for more than thirty years. After Hugh's death in 1986, it was her writing and lecturing that kept her going. She has now lived through the 20th century and into the 21st and has written over 60 books and keeps writing. She enjoys being with her friends, her children, her grandchildren, and her great grandchildren."

http://us.macmillan.com/author/madele...

Copyright © 2007 Crosswicks, Ltd. (Madeleine L'Engle, President) ...more

Combine Editions
Madeleine L'Engle's Books

Average rating: 4.04 · 946,949 ratings · 29,402 reviews · 113 distinct works · Similar authors

	A Wrinkle in Time (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet, #1) 4.04 avg rating — 607,597 ratings — published 1962 — 161 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Wind in the Door (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet, #2) 4.08 avg rating — 90,829 ratings — published 1973 — 64 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Swiftly Tilting Planet (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet, #3) 4.12 avg rating — 75,853 ratings — published 1978 — 54 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Many Waters (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet, #4) 4.01 avg rating — 34,039 ratings — published 1986 — 41 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Ring of Endless Light (Austin Family, #5) 4.14 avg rating — 16,331 ratings — published 1980 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	An Acceptable Time (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet, #5) 3.87 avg rating — 14,360 ratings — published 1989 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Time Quartet Box Set (Time Quartet, #1-4) by Madeleine L'Engle, Peter Sís (Illustrator) 4.34 avg rating — 10,565 ratings — published 1989 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Arm of the Starfish (O'Keefe Family, #1) 3.86 avg rating — 7,982 ratings — published 1965 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Meet the Austins (Austin Family, #1) 3.81 avg rating — 7,804 ratings — published 1960 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Time Trilogy (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet, #1-3) 4.41 avg rating — 5,531 ratings — published 1963 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Madeleine L'Engle…

Series by Madeleine L'Engle

Time Quintet (5 books)
by Madeleine L'Engle
4.05 avg rating — 840,432 ratings

Kairos (8 books)
by Madeleine L'Engle
4.04 avg rating — 837,751 ratings

Austin Family (9 books)
by Madeleine L'Engle
3.94 avg rating — 40,633 ratings

O'Keefe Family (4 books)
by Madeleine L'Engle
3.84 avg rating — 29,577 ratings

Crosswicks Journals (4 books)
by Madeleine L'Engle
4.21 avg rating — 9,974 ratings

More series by Madeleine L'Engle…

Quotes by Madeleine L'Engle

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”
― Madeleine L'Engle

tags: books, children, difficult, grown-ups, write, writers, writing

15530 likes

“A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.”
― Madeleine L'Engle

tags: books, fire, star, universe

4031 likes

“A self is not something static, tied up in a pretty parcel and handed to the child, finished and complete. A self is always becoming.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, A Circle of Quiet

tags: self

1910 likes

See all Madeleine L'Engle's quotes »

Polls

What book would you like to read in March?

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

29 votes, 17.1%

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

26 votes, 15.3%

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

24 votes, 14.1%

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

21 votes, 12.4%

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

21 votes, 12.4%

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

16 votes, 9.4%

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

10 votes, 5.9%

The Complete Stories and Poemsby Edgar Allan Poe

9 votes, 5.3%

The Once and Future King by T.H. White

9 votes, 5.3%

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

5 votes, 2.9%

170 total votes

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