L’Engle, Madeleine (1918-2007), was an American author best known for her children’s books. She won the Newbery Medal in 1963 for A Wrinkle in Time (1962), the first book in a time travel adventure series called “Time Fantasy.” The other books in the series are A Wind in the Door (1973), A Swiftly Tilting Planet (1978), Many Waters (1986), and An Acceptable Time (1989). The series explores the conflict between good and evil as well as family relationships. L’Engle wrote another series of children’s novels that explores life in the Austin family. The series began with Meet the Austins (1960).
L’Engle also wrote novels for adults as well as essays, poetry, plays, and autobiography. Her novels for adults include The Small Rain (1945), which was her first published book, and A Severed Wasp (1983). Both deal with a concert pianist. Her autobiographies are A Circle of Quiet (1972), The Summer of the Great-Grandmother (1974), The Irrational Season (1977), and Two-Part Invention (1988).
Madeleine L’Engle Camp was born on Nov. 29, 1918, in New York City. She dropped the last name Camp before publishing her first book. L’Engle died on Sept. 6, 2007. A collection of her early short stories, many of them previously unpublished and discovered after her death by one of her granddaughters, was published as The Moment of Tenderness (2020).
