Madeleine L’Engle was a novelist , an litterateur , and a poet , but she will always be substantially remembered forA Wrinkle in Time , in which she folded reality so that we could cross vast distances in a speck .
As a stellar Maker of family deliver from both her own experience and her spacious imagination , L’Engle throw us The Austins , The Murrys , and The O’Keefes . But , through her writing , she also made us members of those families . perchance it take place when we were Kyd , or maybe we came to her books when we were older . But her particular skill was in put forward responses to her adventures from readers of all ages .
On what would have been her centesimal natal day , here are 10 fact about Madeleine L’Engle — a woman who will forever be in the pantheon of YA royalty .
1. She started writing at a very young age.
Madeleine L’Engle was the only child of a pianist mother and a writer sire who hug creativity . They gave her the space to read , write , play music , draw , and otherwise inhabit an internal dream humankind . “ I ’ve been a writer ever since I could hold a pencil , ” shetoldthe National Endowment for the Humanities .
2. Her dedication to individualism came from her time at boarding school.
One primary root word ofA Wrinkle in Timeand L’Engle ’s other works is the danger of immense conformity . Sameness is describe as a hellish slog , and heroes often acquire out because of their unique characteristics . That preference for individuality sprung from her English embarkment schoolhouse ’s normal forlabelingits student with numbers instead of names . It imbued her with what she described as " an intense passion to be experience by a name , not a issue . You take off a name , you take by a person ’s realness . "
3. Her faith influenced her writing.
L’Engle , who converted to Christianity in adulthood , was clear about her inscription to religious faith and its wallop on her work . Her fantasy and sci - fi Ketubim are sprinkled with scriptural references , and she published several reflection on the Bible . A Wrinkle in Timeis her counterargument to stiff - apt German theologians who had no room for seeing things differently and , as shetoldThe Washington Post , act as her " affirmation of a world in which I could take not of all the evil and unfairness and horror and yet believe in a loving God Almighty . "
4. Her books were banned in many Christian bookstores.
Even though Christianity lead her fine art , L’Engle rejected the “ Christian author " label , as she ascertain it reductive . It was probably just as well , as some Christians were hostile toward her books , going so far as to ban them from Christian fund and petition to have them take away from school library . The repercussion confused and angered L’Engle , but she finally came around to cut it asgood publicity .
5.A Wrinkle in Timewas rejected 26 times.
6. She decided to quit writing at 40 … but kept writing anyway.
L’Engle felt shamed about all the prison term she spent spell that did n’t amount to a payroll check . She had published three script in the 1940s — The Small Rain , Ilsa , andAnd Both Were immature — but a series of loser shook her so ill that she resolve to stop writing altogether when she received yet anotherrejection letterin 1958 , on her 40th natal day . Against her own promises , she bear on publish anyway . And two age later she publishedMeet the Austins , which kicked off the most prolific , successful era of her calling .
7. She believed that In order to write for children, you had to think like a child.
In a piece forThe New York Timesthat play shortly after the success ofA Wrinkle in Time , L’Engle pen that to write heavy literature for children , authors needed to be earnest , create superimposed stories , trust children to understand what grownup often do not [ PDF ] , and join on a grade that once came naturally to all of us . " Our knowledge is so often uncomplete and faulty that it can tolerate in the way of wisdom , and only by turn back to the intuitive understanding of his own childhood can the writer transmute what he has find out into art , " she said .
8. She has her own crater on Mercury.
If you ’re chatter the south celestial pole of Mercury any time soon , be certain to turn back at the L’Engle volcanic crater . The International Astronomical Union officiallynamed itin 2013 to honour her just after the Messenger Spacecraft finished mapping the planet ’s surface .
9. She refused to save a character that her son didn’t want to see die.
Some writers see themselves as the all - brawny architect of a narrative while others see themselves as conduits for come forth truths . L’Engle was in the latter pack . This tendency direct her to keep history detail and whole characters who popped up from outside her best laid plan , and coerce her to kill Joshua [ PDF ] inThe Arm of the Starfish — even though her boy begged her to save him .
10. She had a perfect response when toldA Wrinkle in timewas “too difficult for children.”
L’Engle firm believed you had to trust shaver , particularly because they would be more willing to go along with the sort of outlandish story elements at which adult might scoff . Even whenA Wrinkle in Timefound a publisher , they told her to require dispirited sales agreement [ PDF ] because it was “ too unmanageable for children . ” Her response ? “ The trouble was n’t that it was too hard for children . It was too difficult for adults . "
