Goodbye Ms. L'Engle

When I was in elementary school, my teacher read Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time to the class. I was mesmerized. In my mind I was Charles Wallace on the adventure of a lifetime. It was the first book I ever purchased with my own money and I can't tell you how many times I have read it since.

So it is with great sadness that I write about the passing of Ms. L'Engle, the woman who planted the seed of my love of reading. She was 88 years old when she died of natural causes at the nursing home in which she had been living for the past three years.

A Wrinkle in Time was her masterpiece. It was published in 1963 and went on to win the John Newbery Medal as the best children's book of that year. So far it has sold over 8 million copies and is in its 69th printing.

But for those of you out there trying to achieve your dream, take note! This classic was rejected by 26 publishers and its mix of science fiction and myth has made it one of the most banned books in the United States. Ms. L'Engle took it in stride. “It seems people are willing to damn the book without reading it,” Ms. L’Engle said in an interview with The New York Times in 2001. “Nonsense about witchcraft and fantasy. First I felt horror, then anger, and finally I said, ‘Ah, the hell with it.’ It’s great publicity, really.”

Thank you Ms. L'Engle. And take heart dreamers, keep striving!

For the full New York Times article, click here.

If you would like to purchase A Wrinkle in Time, click here.