Madeleine L'Engle, 1918-2007

Madeleine L'Engle is dead. Her book, A Wrinkle in Time, was one of the first science fiction books I read. (I'm not counting little kid fantasy/fairy tales, although I read lots and lots of it.) At 9 years old in 5th grade, I bought it from one of those school cheap-book programs for kids (what were those called? I got so many books that way!). I picked it out on the description, already drawn to SF. I was immediately entranced by Meg, and her weird little brother ... I read that book probably dozens of times over the next ten years, and duly passed it on to my younger sisters.

I never read L'Engle's adult fiction, but she had a lasting and positive impact on me -- on my reading, and on my moral development.

* NYT obit
* feminist SF blog post with other links

(originally posted to Feminist SF)

-- lquilter

Some more memories on green dragon ...

-- lquilter

lquilter,

So do you think we should post there, to avoid duplication of group purposes?

Anyway, L'Engle. I read A Wrinkle in Time, but much older, maybe in my mid teens, and so it didn't have a big an impact. I did like it, and reread it several times. There weren't a lot of heroines in the SF of that period. Meg was very brave and admirable.

People should post wherever they like! Probably folks will post in their regular groups. But I thought it would be good to have a group for this purpose. Heck, we can just link to other people's discussions.

-- lquilter

more links:

The FSFwiki (including my edits) has some political analysis of her work: FSFwiki L'Engle entry

Salon.com has an appreciation by Laurel Snyder.

-- lquilter