Madeleine L'Engle

Author profile

born

November 29, 1918 in New York, The United States

died

September 06, 2007

gender

female

website

http://www.madeleinelengle.com/

genre

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

About this author

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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,...more 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)(less)

combine editions
Books by Madeleine L'Engle

Average rating: 4.02 · 346,759 ratings · 13,890 reviews · 84 distinct works

	A Wrinkle in Time (Time, #1) 4.04 avg rating — 203,097 ratings — published 1962 — 27 editions	My rating:
	A Wind in the Door 4.04 avg rating — 36,455 ratings — published 1973 — 42 editions	My rating:
	A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Time, #3) 4.06 avg rating — 30,251 ratings — published 1978 — 36 editions	My rating:
	Many Waters (Time, #4) 3.96 avg rating — 14,487 ratings — published 1985 — 32 editions	My rating:
	A Ring of Endless Light 4.08 avg rating — 8,846 ratings — published 1980 — 15 editions	My rating:
	An Acceptable Time (Time, #5) (O'Keefe Family, #4) 3.83 avg rating — 6,621 ratings — published 1989 — 16 editions	My rating:
	The Time Quartet Box Set by Madeleine L'Engle, Peter Sís (Illustrator) 4.36 avg rating — 4,024 ratings — published 1989 — 4 editions	My rating:
	The Arm of the Starfish (O'Keefe Family, #1) 3.81 avg rating — 4,514 ratings — published 1965 — 8 editions	My rating:
	Troubling a Star 3.80 avg rating — 3,486 ratings — published 1994 — 11 editions	My rating:
	Meet the Austins (Austin Family, #1) 3.75 avg rating — 3,590 ratings — published 1960 — 12 editions	My rating:

More books by Madeleine L'Engle…

Series by Madeleine L'Engle

Time (5 books)
by Madeleine L'Engle

4.04 avg rating — 293,410 ratings

Austin Family (9 books)
by Madeleine L'Engle

3.89 avg rating — 21,198 ratings

O'Keefe Family (4 books)
by Madeleine L'Engle

3.80 avg rating — 15,166 ratings

Crosswicks Journals (3 books)
by Madeleine L'Engle

4.14 avg rating — 3,525 ratings

Vigneras (2 books)
by Madeleine L'Engle

3.94 avg rating — 2,724 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

8,422 people liked it

“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

998 people liked it

“Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.”
― Madeleine L'Engle

tags: god , joy

526 people liked it

See all Madeleine L'Engle's quotes »

Polls

Please vote for the award winning book you would like to read during July.

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (2009 Aurealis Awards)

18 votes 20.5%

Looking for Alaska by John Green (Printz Award 2006)

14 votes 15.9%

A Wrinkle in Time byMadeleine L'Engle (Newberry Meda, 1963)

11 votes 12.5%

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (Newberry and Printz 2003)

10 votes 11.4%

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (Scott O'Dell Historical Fiction Winner & National Book Award Finalist 2009)

8 votes 9.1%

Savvy by Ingrid Law (Newberry Medal 2009)

7 votes 8.0%

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (Newberry Award 1978)

5 votes 5.7%

Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata (Newberry Medal 2005)

4 votes 4.5%

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (Newberry Medal 2000)

3 votes 3.4%

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (Newberry Honour award 2010)

3 votes 3.4%

The High King by Lloyd Alexander (Newberry 1969)

2 votes 2.3%

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz (Newberry Award 2009)

1 vote 1.1%

The First Part Last by Angela Johnson (Printz 2004)

1 vote 1.1%

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor (Newbery 1977)

1 vote 1.1%

Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins (Newberry Medal 2006)

0 votes 0.0%

88 total votes

5 comments

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Madeleine L'Engle

Author profile

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Books by Madeleine L'Engle

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Quotes by Madeleine L'Engle

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Madeleine's Fans (2236)

Madeleine L'Engle

Author profile

combine editionsBooks by Madeleine L'Engle

Series by Madeleine L'Engle

Quotes by Madeleine L'Engle

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Add New
Videos

combine editions
Books by Madeleine L'Engle