Madeleine L'Engle

Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) was an award-winning writer of YA and adult fiction, both SF and narrative realism. She is best-known for the award-winning A Wrinkle in Time, and most of her fiction took place in that same universe, following the characters from that story (the Murry-O'Keefe families; also called the "kairos" stories) and others (the "Austin" families; also called the "chronos" stories). The Murry-O'Keefe stories tend to be more SFnal, while the Austin stories tend to have only a few minor SFnal elements, if any.

Her work has significant spiritual themes, often identified as Christian. Although frequently compared to C. S. Lewis, L'Engle's focus on "love" and the holistic nature of the universe in her most popular children's works is more akin to the fantasy works of Diane Duane than to the more overtly Christian works of C. S. Lewis. She did also write some Christian-mythology based stories.

Names

She was born Madeleine L'Engle Camp, named for her great-grandmother, Madeleine L'Engle, and the surname "Camp" came from her father.

• Madeleine L'Engle Camp - full legal name
• Madeleine L'Engle - first and middle name; primarily published name

Bibliography

• Meet the Austins (1960) (Austins)
• A Wrinkle in Time (1962; Newbery Award winner) (Murry)
• The Moon by Night (1963) (Austins)
• The Arm of the Starfish (1965) (O'Keefe)
• The Young Unicorns (1968) (Austins)
• A Wind in the Door (1973) (Murry)
• Dragons in the Waters (1976) (O'Keefe)
• A Swiftly Tilting Planet (1978) (Murry)
• A Ring of Endless Light (1980)
• A House Like a Lotus (1984) (O'Keefe)
• Many Waters (1986) (Murry)
• An Acceptable Time (1989) (O'Keefe)
• Troubling a Star (1994) (Austins)

Further reading

• Wikipedia entry
• New York Times article about her death
• Publishers Weekly obituary
• Collection of Madeleine L'Engle's papers at Wheaton College, Illinois

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