I saw this at a Seattle bookstore over the weekend:


The Joys of Love is a previously unpublished coming-of-age story written by Madeleine L'Engle in the 1940s. The book includes an introduction by the author's granddaughter, who suggests that the novel's protagonist is "close to an autobiographical portrait of L'Engle herself as a young woman".

Here's the plot summary (taken from the publisher's website):

"During the summer of 1946, twenty-year-old Elizabeth is doing what she has dreamed of since she was a little girl: working in the theatre. Elizabeth is passionate about her work and determined to learn all she can at the summer theatre company on the sea where she is an apprentice actress. She’s never felt so alive. And soon she finds another passion: Kurt Canitz, the dashing young director of the company, and the first man Elizabeth’s ever kissed who has really meant something to her. Then Elizabeth’s perfect summer is profoundly shaken when Kurt turns out not to be the kind of man she thought he was."

While she's best known for her Wrinkle in Time series, L'Engle could actually write a mean melodrama, and she was exploring some eyebrow-raising YA issues long before Judy Blume's Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret came out in 1970.

Labels: Madeleine L'Engle

We were very sorry to hear that Madeleine L'Engle, author of the mind-bogglingly awesome children's classic A Wrinkle in Time, died last Thursday. Ms. L'Engle lived to a ripe old eighty-eight, and is survived by two daughters, five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

A Wrinkle in Time was rejected by 26 publishers before the wise editors at Farrar, Straus & Giroux accepted it. It went on to win the John Newbery Medal for 1963 and is now in its 69th printing. It's one of the most banned books in the United States, usually due to religious objections--ridiculous, as Ms. L'Engle was a woman of strong and openly professed faith.

I hope Ms. L'Engle was well enough a few months ago to admire the beautiful new reprints of A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels. She was a wonderful author, and will be missed.

Labels: Madeleine L'Engle, Obituaries

Square Fish Books has just released a gorgeous and inexpensive ($6.99) new paperback edition to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Madeleine L'Engle's Newberry-award-winning A Wrinkle in Time. Check it out:


It has the same vibe as the beautiful, faux-vintage re-issues of the Narnia books that came out a few years ago. I'll probably pick up this edition, as my copy of L'Engle's book is a tattered, coverless mess--plus, if memory serves, it wasn't all that pretty to begin with.

Labels: Madeleine L'Engle