Madeleine L'Engle, November 29, 1918 - September 6, 2007

I cannot believe that I missed this - Madeleine L'Engle passed away last week. My mom and I were talking about her just last weekend - how her memoir concerning the illness and death of her husband was "formative" (we never could think of the right word) for me. I read it when I was fourteen (for a biography book report, no less), and it did much to shape my understanding of true love as being such that it gives us strength to stand by our loved ones even in the torturous times - the strength even to lose our loved ones - and yet to be comforted in the midst of it all, both by that true love and by the God who is himself the truest Love that ever was.

Funny how an author can be a "kindred spirit" in such a way that her passing is momentous, and I am encouraged by the fact that I am certainly not the only one who felt this way. The truth is, like the authors of the tributes below, I never came close to reading all of her work, and I never really had the desire to read some of it (the Austins just weren't my cup of tea). Nonetheless, those books that I did read (all five of the Wrinkle in Time series, A Two-Part Invention, and bits of Walking on Water and the Crosswicks journals) have impacted my life tremendously. I love the way Jessica Reaves in her Chicago Tribune tribute talks about A Wrinkle in Time:

Like so many other children before and after me, I thrilled to this new kind of storytelling. Meg Murry, a cranky, brilliant, unpopular preteen, was unlike any literary heroine I'd ever encountered. She was real to me. . .

I have recently reread a few of the Time books (except for my favorite, Many Waters, which is missing, so if you've seen it, let me know!), and I am still moved by what they have to say about life, about good, and about evil. Jeff Jacoby in this tribute writes, concerning that number who have attempted to ban the books (and thus earned L'Engle a place as a "top-banned author"):

Perhaps what made them uneasy about "A Wrinkle In Time" was precisely what strikes me, all these years later, as so remarkable about it: its message of a universe threatened by evil, in which the greatest good is accomplished only by those prepared to swallow their fears and face the enemies of truth.

Jacoby also notes that L'Engle always believed that "sometimes the best way to reach adults with a difficult truth is through literature that appeals to children." So for those of you who have missed the power of these pieces, time has not run out!

As for me, I know of nothing better to do but echo Lois Lowry's tribute: "Blessings to you, Madeleine L'Engle."