Please
read this first:
You
can't email Madeleine L'Engle through this website. Madeleine L'Engle is
deceased!
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Hi, I'm Karen Funk Blocher. I built this
website to help Madeleine L'Engle's readers figure out what books they want
to read or buy for their collections, and where to get them. This website
can also be helpful to people with questions about Madeleine L'Engle
herself and students with papers to write. BUT: I'm NOT here to help you
get out of reading a book for school, or to write part of your paper for
you!
If you have questions about Madeleine L'Engle or her books, please
explore this website before you email me your questions. There are lots of
links in the table of contents below to help you find what you need.
Most of the questions I receive are already answered on the FAQ page, so you may want
to start there. If you want basic information about the novels in each
series and in what order to read them, start with my novels page.
One thing I can't help you with very much is information on attempts
to ban some of her books. I haven't had much luck researching this in
the past, and I don't have time to tackle it again now. The short
answer is that yes, A Wrinkle in Time and other titles have been
"challenged" by fundamentalist Christians (the ones L'Engle calls
''fundalits") who think (wrongly) that they promote witchcraft, magic,
fortune telling, and Un-Christian values.
If after you read this website you still
have a couple of specific questions for me, you can email me through a link
at the bottom of this page, and I'll answer if I can--eventually. Thanks,
God bless you, and enjoy!
Karen
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(sections in red are not yet written)
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News: Madeleine
L'Engle, 1918-2007
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I received the following
updates recently from www.madeleinelengle.com.
Sorry I didn’t get them online earlier; I’ve been having
technical issues as well as a few personal crises in recent months.
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Dear
Friends,
This is a reminder
that Madeleine's memorial service is coming up next week.
A requiem mass will
take place at the Cathedral of St.
John the Divine, 4pm, Wednesday November 28th. A
reception will follow. That's the day before her 89th birthday. If you're
in the New York
area, we'd love for you to help us celebrate her life and work. All are
welcome.
We are
collecting remembrances and tributes to be shared. If you would like to
write something, please send via attachment to info@madeleinelengle.com,
or to the address below. We ask that you limit your pieces to
two-dimensional 8.5 x 11" paper.
Madeleine
L'Engle Memorial
924 West End Ave. #95
New York, NY
10025
We
hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
With
love,
The
Family of Madeleine L'Engle Franklin
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www.madeleinelengle.com
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Older health updates give a general idea of the situation in recent years:
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According to her granddaughter, Charlotte Jones,
Madeleine L'Engle had a cerebral hemorrhage (stroke) on February 3rd,
2002. She is said to have recovered "beyond all expectation,"
but is not well enough for personal appearances, correspondence, etc.
Because of this, I think it's a safe to say we should not expect any new
novels any time soon, although I suppose it's still possible. Instead of
looking for what this wonderful author can do for us, it's time for us to
offer our gratitude for what she's already done, and our prayers for
L'Engle and her family. However, it's not all bad news. The latest word
on her official web
site is that her recuperation continues
well. Now 85 years old, L'Engle's life continues at a much slower pace
than before, and is filled with "quiet reflection and occasional intense
conversation."
A more recent update, from early 2004, mentions that L'Engle has received
a pacemaker in 2003, and "continues to maintain her health
beautifully through serene and restful living."
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News: Latest L'Engle Book
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The webmaster of
madeleinelengle.com sent the following press release in 2005:
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The Ordering of
Love:
New and Collected Poems of Madeleine L'Engle
released March 2005
by Waterbrook Press
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Hello all --
I am very pleased to announce the publication of a new book of
Madeleine's collected poetry! The Ordering of Love: The New and
Collected Poems of Madeleine L'Engle (WaterBrook
Press/Random House) is now available.
For the first time, nearly 200 of Madeleine's poems are collected here,
including eighteen that have never been published before. Reflecting on
themes of love, faith, and beauty, The Ordering of Love weaves
intangible experiences like grief and joy with the visible events of
life, from hospital rooms to bus rides, giving harmony and voice to the
complex realities of life.
Walter Wangerin, Jr. wrote the foreword, and Luci Shaw wrote the
introduction.
The book is available through your favorite local bookseller (and online,
of course).
On another note, thanks to everyone who voted for Madeleine in the Nick
Kid's Choice 2005 Awards. If you haven't voted, there's still a day
or two left to make your voice heard.
And if you've already voted. . . vote again! :-)
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Best of Spring to you all,
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Edward Jones
Webmaster, madeleinelengle.com
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This is the first title by L'Engle released since Madeleine L'Engle,
Herself several years ago. Like most of L'Engle's most recent
books, it's a collection, but I'm very pleased to learn that it includes
eighteen new (or, at least, previously unpublished) poems. This bodes well
for future titles. Even if L'Engle herself is unable to write as
prolifically as she did when she was younger and healthier, these
collections are valuable for bringing us material by her, old and new, that
we've never seen before. I only hope that a future title will do the
same for her short fiction, most of which has probably been out of print
for decades.
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Madeleine L'Engle-Related Films
(Updated: 4/15/05)
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Yes, I know: I've let this
page get terribly out of date.
A
Wrinkle in Time
Disney's 3 hour adaptation of A Wrinkle in
Time finally aired Monday, May 10th, 2004 on the ABC program The Wonderful World of Disney.
It is now available
on DVD. Would I buy it? Well, I did, but I've never
actually opened and watched the DVD. That should tell you somthing
about my opinion of it.
Over the years, Madeleine L'Engle has retained the film rights to all her
books, refusing to let anyone make a film of, for example, A Wrinkle
in Time, until someone wrote a script that met with her approval.
Various screenwriters have tried and failed to do this; apparently most of
them just didn't "get it." They did not understand what the book
was about. The fact that L'Engle allowed this production tells me that she
probably felt that this particular group of filmmakers did understand the
story, or she realized that she was running out of opportunities to see it
made in her lifetime, or both. Interestingly, www.madeleinelengle.com never
got around to listing the air date, and a New York Times News Service press
release said that L'Engle was declining to comment on the finished product.
However, in a new interview with Newsweek
(mid-May 2004), she says, "I expected it to be bad, and it is."
Ouch!
From everything I've read over the past several years, however, the
makers of the tv movie were passionate about making the best film/tv
adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time that they possibly could. Nor
was it just another property to them. It's a project at least one of the
producers has been wanting to for many years, perhaps even decades.
The film won the 2003 Best Feature Film Award at the Toronto Children's Film
Festival. It was filmed in Canada, principally Vancouver
and Whistler, in 2000-2001. As early as September, 2001, a trailer
for it appeared on the Spy Kids VHS and DVD releases.
That trailer was very different from what eventually aired.
Similarly, most of the press releases for it mentioned Meg's father's
"partner" in the tesseract project, Hank. The character is
briefly mentioned on page 167 of the book as a co-worker at the lab, who
drew the short straw and tessered first. The aired version of the
movie, mercifully, doesn't mention him. One variation between the
book and the movie that didn't get changed to be more canonical is in the
first names of Meg's parents. In the movie, they're Jack and Dana.
As revealed in the L'Engle book An Acceptable Time, their names
should have been Alexander (Alex) and Katherine (Kate).
That's just the tip of the iceberg of differences between the book and
the movie. There are scenes added, scenes subtracted, scenes moved
around. Most of the dialogue is very different, and the movie updates
the 1962 book with contemporary slang and references to the Web. I think,
however, that we must accept that this isn't a word-for-word adaptation of
this wonderful book, and never could be for dramatic, cinematic and other
reasons. The film Mary Poppins isn't much like the books, but it's a
truly great film anyway. No two versions of Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy (radio, books, TV, and LP record) have quite the same plot, but
they're all great. So we must take the movie of A Wrinkle in Time on
its own terms, and decide whether it works.
On the whole, I think it does. It's not the greatest tv movie ever
made, but it's well-cast, visually impressive, and reasonably satisfying in
terms of story and characters. Some points are made all too obvious,
while others are passed over, and a few of the characters, most notably Mrs
Which, aren't the people we know from the books. But most of the
characters are recognizably themselves, even if they don't say quite the
same things; and the themes of the book remain more or less intact, even if
the incidents that convey them are different from the original. The
filmmakers made highly unexpected choices in casting the Mrs Ws, making
them much younger and prettier than I ever pictured them being. But that's
okay. They're good actresses, and they all did interesting things with
their highly reinterpreted roles.
Two other recent screen projects are as follows:
A
Ring of Endless Light
(Updated: 3/22/03)
A Ring of Endless Light premiered on the Disney Channel
August 23, 2002 at 8 pm Eastern/Pacific, as a made for tv movie. Disney
Channel original movies typically premiere on a Friday with back to back
airings, are shown again the following night, and are repeated on an
irregular basis after that. The most popular ones even get released on
video in some cases. I have to say I was more than a little disappointed by
this tv movie, which took the "safe" parts of the book (Vicky and
Adam and dolphin communication, mostly), cut out most of the gloom and doom
(no dead Commander Rodney, no Jeb, no sick little girl in ER, no sparrows
in danger) and added on a save-the-dolphins plot that's previously
appeared, more or less, in at least one other Disney production. Still, the
cast was very good, and there are bits of pieces of the "real"
characters and themes among the fluff. I guess I should have known that
Disney wouldn't start with a book that is mostly about death and take it to
the small screen intact. (*Sigh*)
<>Mischa Barton (an alumnus of All My Children,
who also appeared in the 1999 film The Sixth Sense) stars as Vicky
Austin, the girl who can communicate with dolphins. Its producer, Martha
Wheelock of Ishtar Films, was
also producer on her video biography, Madeleine L'Engle: Star*Gazer.
Bruce Graham wrote the screenplay, and Greg Beeman directed.
The following was written by me before the movie first aired. I still agree
with most of it:
The Disney Channel movie apparently has Vicky, Adam, and even Zach
trying to save dolphins from villainous fishermen using illegal drift nets.
Uh, excuse me, but that's not in the book I read! Still, if Madeleine
L'Engle approved the addition this ecologically uplifting plot
complication, then I'm prepared to give the Zoog Movie a fair chance. After
all, environmentally-aware themes appear in several of L'Engle's books,
including The Arm of the Starfish, which introduced the ever-popular
Adam. I have to wonder, however, whether all this zug about drift nets is a
substitution for some or all of the human deaths and impending deaths that
form the heart of the original book. I was thinking just before the promos
turned up that the novel as written is a little heavy for Disney. They may
have had to tone down the omnipresent death angle and build up the dolphin
angle to get the movie made at all. A dolphins-in-danger story has got to
be a much easier sell for teen/tween-oriented cable than a story about a
girl who is positively surrounded by death during one long, difficult
summer. Still, if the filmmakers get even part of the death angle in, and
are reasonably true to these characters, then all will be forgiven, at
least by me. The producer-director has a longstanding acquaintance with
Madeleine L'Engle, having previously made a documentary about her, so it's
probable (especially given the author's history of protecting her books
from being adapted badly for film) that L'Engle approved the changed story.
If the story's author approves, then who am I to quibble?
I will say that I'm pleased with the casting. I'm not familiar with
Mischa Barton, but I looked her up in the Internet Movie Database and she's
the right age. Scarlett Pomers (Naomi Wildman on Star Trek: Voyager)
looks great as younger sister Suzy Austin. I'm a little dubious about Zoog
movie veteran Ryan Merriman (Smart House, The Luck of the Irish)
as Adam Eddington, but I'm willing to be convinced. He's cute as heck as a
reluctant teenaged leprechaun in The Luck of the Irish, and I'm
interested in seeing how he handles the more serious role of Adam. On the
other hand, I have no reservations at all about Jared Padalecki playing
Zachary Gray. He positively smoulders as the sometime boyfriend on The
Gilmore Girls, and has a dark, rebellious, slightly vulnerable look
that's perfect for bad boy Zach. James Whitmore, Sr., best known for his
one-man shows as Will Rogers, should be suitably wise as Grandfather Eaton.
As for Soren Futon, who plays Rob, I know nothing about him as an actor,
but recently read that he donates money from his acting to fighting
leprosy. Sounds like something Rob Austin might do!
Here are several links for more info :
IMDb: A Ring of Endless Light
(TV)
mischabarton.net
The Official Scarlett
Pomers Home page - Latest News
Ishtar Films
This has not been released on video to date. If Disney does
release it in the fullness of time, it will undoubtedly be listed on amazon.com.
Madeleine
L'Engle: Star*Gazer
This half-hour, direct to video documentary is a really cool thing for
fans and teachers alike. It was produced and directed by Martha Wheelock,
and narrated by Julie Harris. I believe it dates back to 1990, but I only
found out about it in 2001. It is available from
Ishtar Films
11333 Moorpark St #460
Studio City, CA
91602
Phone: (800) 428-7136
Fax (818) 753-0040
Or order it online at Ishtar
Films.com. (www.ishtarfilms.com).
The cost is $20.00 plus $6.00 shipping.
Many thanks to Charlotte Jones and Martha Wheelock for the updates on
the three films and other L'Engle news.
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Other
Madeleine L'Engle News
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There was a profile of Madeleine L'Engle in The New
Yorker in early April 2004. It was upsetting to some fans because
it offered a very different perspective on the writer's life and family
relationships than those seen in her books. I don't want to take sides on
this issue in these pages, except to point out that many of L'Engle's own
characters, especially in her later books, are basically good but flawed
and damaged people. We should allow real people to be as complex as the
fictional ones.
An even more recent interview appeared in Newsweek and online in mid-May 2004.
Also in 2004, Madeleine L'Engle was honored by President George W.
Bush with a National Humanities Medal. She was unable to attend the
ceremony, but granddaughter Charlotte Jones accepted it on her behalf.
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ML'E and Me
by Karen Funk Blocher
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I was probably in fifth grade when I first read A
Wrinkle in Time. I think my school librarian recommended it
to me, for which I owe her an eternal debt of thanks. It quickly became my
favorite book, and all these years later, it still is.
It's easy to see why I loved the book at the time. Aside from
being well-written, intellectually challenging and spiritually uplifting,
it starred Meg Murry, a character who could have been me in other
circumstances. I was nearly Meg's age, I was bright, and I didn't fit
in with other kids at school, either. In the book, Meg finds unexpected
friendship and overcomes extreme difficulties, and maybe the story gave me
hope that my life could get better, too.
A Wrinkle in Time was also a time travel story of sorts,
giving me a taste of what has since become a major interest of mine.
Nearly every work of fiction I've ever deeply cared about, from Star
Trek to Doctor Who, Anne McCaffrey's Pern
books to the work of James Thurber, Back to the Future to Quantum
Leap, has time travel in it somewhere.
When I was a little older, I found one other L'Engle book--and only
one--in the card catalogue at Manlius Public Library in Manlius, New York.
It was Ilsa, and it prompted me to visit the downstairs
(adult) section of the library for the first time, with special permission
from the librarian. I only read about half of Ilsa at the
time. Frankly, I didn't like it and wasn't ready for it. I didn't have
another opportunity to read the book until 1996.
I still loved the story of Meg and Charles Wallace and Calvin in A
Wrinkle in Time, and I liked the few other titles I eventually
found at the Fayetteville Free Library. When I discovered A
Wind in the Door in hardback at Logos Books in Syracuse, I bought it eagerly. A
Swiftly Tilting Planet soon followed, and by the time I left
college, got married, and moved to Columbus,
Ohio, I had several L'Engle
hardbacks of my own. I've been going to bookstores (new and used) and
library book sales ever since. I now have 80 L'Engle books, including
multiple editions of some titles, plus audio tapes of the Time Trilogy and
an interview, three books about Madeleine L'Engle and her work, and five
books and six magazines to which L'Engle contributed a foreword, story or
essay.
Until recently I had limited interest in the non-fiction titles, but my
appreciation for them has grown in recent years, as has my appreciation for
the more adult-oriented novels. Even so, my favorite books of hers
are still the ones about the Murrys and Austins and O'Keefes. I
particularly enjoy the scope and depth of the world she has built up in her
stories, as familiar characters and family names reappear in different
books and even different series. When Canon Tallis or Suzy Austin or
Dr. Calvin O'Keefe turns up unexpectedly in one of her books, it's as if an
old and dear friend has just appeared on my doorstep.
I've met Madeleine L'Engle exactly once, at a speaking engagement in Columbus, Ohio
in the early-to-mid 1980s. She spoke about astronomy and other subjects,
and afterward I had a thirty second conversation with her as she signed my
copy of A Ring of Endless Light . I asked why Charles Wallace
Murry hadn't appeared as an adult in any of her books, and whether that
meant he was dead. Her answer was (as I recall): "Charles Wallace is
alive and well until I hear otherwise." One of her books
eventually confirmed that Charles Wallace Murry was indeed alive as Poly
and Charles O'Keefe were growing up, but was out of contact with the
O'Keefes for some mysterious reason. I'd still love to read that story!
Lately I've also been wondering whether the parents of Meg and Charles
and Sandy and Dennys had one or more adventures of their own before Meg was
born.
Similarly, I've sent just two letters to Madeleine L'Engle all these
years, although I've composed many more on paper, on my Mac or in my head.
The first letter I actually sent was about Many Waters.
I was deeply disturbed at the time that as scientific a universe as that of
the Murrys and O'Keefes could contain a literal Noah and his Ark, even in Earth's
distant past. Madeleine promptly sent me a brief but courteous reply, even
though (as she informed me) her husband, Hugh Franklin, had just died. I
felt badly for having bothered her, albeit unknowingly, at such a time, but
her compassion and courtesy only increased my already enormous respect for
her, both as a writer and as a person. (My second letter to her, sent in
May 2000, thanked her for my many years of enjoyment of her books, and
offered my condolences about her son's death.)
Over the years, my collection of L'Engle books has continued to grow,
and I've read my way through most of them many times over. Once, when I
lost a new job I hated, my first reaction was, "Oh, good. Now I'll
have more time to read my L'Engle books." (I did get upset, though, a
few seconds later.) Even when we had to move into a smaller house,
and most of my books went into boxes, the L'Engle collection stayed out
where I could get at it.
Every time I found a new book for the collection, I used to try to
figure out what order to put the books in, and what I still needed, using
the lists in the front of the various books as a guide. It didn't work very
well. Many of the lists were far from complete, and what kind of book was A
Cry Like a Bell, anyway? So in 1996, I tried to solve
this problem by going online, hoping to find a good bibliography so that
I'd know what had been published and what sort of book each one was.
I was a little shocked to discover that there did not appear to be a
complete listing of Madeleine L'Engle's books anywhere online, at least
that the search engines I tried could find. (I have since learned
that there are several major L'Engle sites, although search engines tend
not to find them.) I therefore compiled my own listing from various
sources, primarily my own book collection, and put the result online
myself.
Since then, I've learned a lot, cataloging further titles from the
several online sources I failed to find originally, from readers' email,
from Amazon.com, and from whatever notes I could scribble at Borders Books
& Music or at Barnes & Noble. In addition, through Carole Chase's
book, various online sources and readers of this web site, I've learned of
many other titles, especially books to which L'Engle contributed only a
short story (always "Poor Little Saturday") or a foreword
or introduction. As a result, this site is undergoing a series of upgrades,
which will probably take me well into 2001 to complete.
About this Web Site
For space reasons, the crossover information (i.e., characters who
appear in other books) is sketchy at best in the table below. A good
albeit outdated guide to crossovers and character family trees is found at
the beginning of Many Waters. My in-depth bibliography pages by
series, accessible from The
Novels of Madeleine L'Engle, includes hyperlinked references to many of
the major crossover characters. Another fan web site, "Flying Dreams,"
has an in-depth discussion of both crossover characters and the characters
who are related (ancestors, cousins, spouses, etc.) to the characters in
other books. See the novels page linked above for a link to this other
site. Any additions, corrections, or clarifications will be gratefully
accepted. I would also appreciate hearing from book dealers and others who
can sell me copies of the out of print titles I still need (the ones listed
in maroon).
When this web site is completed, there will be more specific information
on each book's category, binding, ISBN number, publishers, etc., all found
on separate pages devoted to particular categories of books. So far
I've managed to do this only with the novels. Any help with publisher
and binding details will be greatly appreciated, since I do not own every
edition of every book, and online bookstores are often less than specific
in this respect. My goal is to make this web site as complete and accurate
as possible.
Each page about the various fictional series will also eventually
include brief biographical sketches of the major characters introduced in
the books listed on that page. I've tried to build a master timeline, but
it didn't work, given the contradictions and very tenuous clues to the
"kairos" and "chronos" in the various books. I have,
however, created a list of the approximate order in which the books take
place. That can be found on my The Novels of Madeleine
L'Engle page.
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The Books of Madeleine L'Engle
(in order of original year of publication)
(titles in maroon or blue are ones that I personally don't own--yet!)
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Title
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Published
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Type
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About
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Crossover Characters
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18 Washington Square, South: A Comedy in One Act
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1944
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AP
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unknown
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The Small Rain (aka Prelude*)
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1945, 1968 etc.
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AF
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Katherine Forrester
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Felix
Bodeway
Dr. Charles Bejart
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Ilsa
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1946
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AF
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Henry Porcher
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Renier and Porcher families
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And Both Were Young
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1949, 1983 (revised)
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YAF
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Philippa "Flip" Hunter
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Dr. Charles Bejart (mentioned)
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Camilla Dickinson (aka Camilla)
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1951, 1965 (revised)
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AF
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Camilla Dickinson
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Frank Rowan
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A Winter's Love
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1957, 1983,1997
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AF
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Bowen family
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Mimi Oppenheimer
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Meet the Austins
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1960
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YAF
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Austin
family
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A Wrinkle In Time
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1962
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YSF
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Murry family
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Calvin O'Keefe
Drs. Shasti & Shen-Shu (mentioned in passing)
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The Moon By Night
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1963
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YAM
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Austin
family
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Zachary Gray, Leo Rodney
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The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas
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1964, 1984
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CF
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Austin
family
|
|
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The Arm of the Starfish
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1965
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YSF
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Adam Eddington
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O'Keefe family**, Canon Tallis
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(The) Love Letters
|
1966,
1996 rev.
|
AF
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Charlotte Napier
|
|
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The Journey with Jonah
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1967
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CP
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Jonah (the prophet)
|
|
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The Young Unicorns
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1968
|
YSF
|
Austin
family
|
Mr Theotocopoulous, Canon Tallis, Josiah
"Dave" Davidson, Emily Gregory
Drs. Shasti & Shen-Shu
|
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Dance in the Desert
|
1969
|
BF
|
Jesus
|
|
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Lines Scribbled On an
Envelope
|
1969
|
PO
|
poetry
|
|
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The Other Side of the Sun
|
1971
|
AF
|
Stella Renier
|
|
|
A Circle
of Quiet
|
1972
|
CJ
|
autobiographical
|
Canon Tallis
|
|
A Wind in the Door
|
1973
|
YSF
|
Murry family
|
|
|
Prayers for Sunday
|
1974
|
PR
|
prayers
|
|
|
Everyday Prayers (aka Prayer
for Every Day)
|
1974
|
PR
|
prayers
|
|
|
The Summer of the Great-Grandmother
|
1974
|
CJ
|
autobiographical
|
Canon Tallis
|
|
Spirit and Light: Essays in
Historical Theology
|
1976
|
TE
|
theology
|
Canon Tallis
|
|
Dragons in the Waters
|
1976
|
YAM
|
Simon Renier, O'Keefe family
|
Mr Theotocopoulous, Canon Tallis, Renier family
|
|
The Irrational Season
|
1977
|
CJ
|
autobiographical / religious
|
|
|
The Weather of the Heart
|
1978
|
PO
|
poetry / religious
|
|
|
A Swiftly Tilting Planet
|
1978
|
YSF
|
Murry family
|
|
|
Ladder of Angels: Scenes from the Bible Illustrated by
Children of the World
|
1979
|
BR,
PO
|
Bible stories, essays & poems
|
|
|
A Ring of Endless Light
|
1980
|
YSF
|
Austin
family
|
Adam Eddington, Zachary Gray, Leo Rodney, Katherine
Forrester Vigneras
|
|
Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art
|
1980
|
LE
|
literary / religious
|
|
|
The Anti-Muffins
|
1980
|
CF
|
Austin
family
|
|
|
The Sphinx at Dawn
|
1982
|
BF
|
Jesus
|
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A Severed Wasp
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1982
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AF
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Katherine Forrester Vigneras
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Suzy Austin Davidson family, Mimi Oppenheimer, Felix
Bodeway, Emily Gregory, Philippa Hunter
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|
And It Was Good: Reflections on Beginnings
|
1983
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BR
|
autobiographical / religious
|
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A House Like a Lotus
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1984
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YAF
|
O'Keefe family
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Zachary Gray, Virginia Bowen Porcher, Frank Rowan
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|
Trailing Clouds of Glory: Spiritual Values in Children's
Literature (written with Avery Brooke)
|
1985
|
LE
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literary/religious
|
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|
Dare To Be Creative!
|
1985
|
LE
|
lecture at Library of Congress
|
|
|
Separation From The Stars
|
1986
|
LE
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probably a lecture at Baylor
School in Chattanooga, TN
|
|
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A Stone for a Pillow:
Journeys with Jacob
|
1986
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BR
|
autobiographical / biblical
|
|
|
Many Waters
|
1986
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YSF
|
Murry family
|
|
|
A Cry Like a Bell
|
1987
|
PO
|
religious / poetry
|
|
|
Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage
|
1988
|
CJ
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autobiographical
|
|
|
Sold Into Egypt: Joseph's Journey Into
Human Being
|
1989
|
BR
|
autobiographical / biblical
|
Joseph (Old Testament)
|
|
An Acceptable Time
|
1989
|
YSF
|
O'Keefe family
|
Murry family, Zachary Gray
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|
The Glorious Impossible:
Jesus Christ & His Family (illustrated by Giotto frescoes)
|
1990
|
BR
|
biblical
|
|
|
Certain Women
|
1992
|
AF
|
Wheaton
family
|
Canon Tallis, Charlotte Napier (the latter as a
character in a play)
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|
The Rock That is Higher:
Story as Truth
|
1993
|
LE
|
literary / religious
|
|
|
Anytime Prayers
(revision of Prayer for Everyday)
|
1994
|
PR
|
prayers
|
|
|
Troubling a Star
|
1994
|
YAM
|
Austin
family
|
Adam Eddington
|
|
Penguins & Golden
Calves: Icons and Idols
|
1996
|
TJ
|
autobiographical / religious
|
|
|
A Live Coal in the Sea
|
1996
|
AF
|
Dr. Camilla Dickinson
|
Frank Rowan
|
|
Winter Song: Christmas Readings
(Edited by Madeleine L'Engle & Luci Shaw)
|
1996
|
LE, PO
|
literary / religious / poetry
|
Austin
family (short story)
|
|
Glimpses of Grace: Daily Thoughts & Reflections
(with Carole F Chase)
|
1996
|
CQ
|
inspirational / religious***
|
|
|
Mothers and Daughters (photos by L'Engle's daughter
Maria Rooney)
|
May '97
|
LE,
PO
|
inspirational / photographic / poetry
|
|
|
Friends for the Journey (with Luci Shaw)
|
Jun '97
|
LE
|
autobiographical / religious
|
|
|
Bright Evening Star: Mystery of the Incarnation
|
Sep '97
|
TJ
|
biblical
|
|
|
Miracle on 10th
Street & Other Christmas Writings
|
Oct '98
|
LC
|
Christmas-related fiction, non-fiction & poetry
|
Austin
family (2 short stories), Topaze (from A Severed Wasp)
|
|
Mothers and Sons (photos by L'Engle's daughter Maria
Rooney)
|
Mar '99
|
LE
|
inspirational / photographic
|
|
|
A Prayerbook for Spiritual Friends
|
Aug '99
|
PR
|
prayers
|
|
|
A Full House: An Austin Family Christmas
|
Oct '99
|
AF
|
Christmas-related fiction
|
Austin
family
|
|
The Other Dog (illustrated by Christine Davenier)
|
Mar '01
|
CF
|
children's fiction
about Touché L'Engle-Franklin
|
Madeleine L'Engle's own family in 1947.
|
|
The Genesis Trilogy
|
Apr '01
|
BR
|
autobiographical / biblical
|
And It Was Good, A Stone for a Pillow, and
Sold into Egypt in one volume
|
|
Madeleine L'Engle, Herself:
Reflections On a Writing Life (compiled by Carole F. Chase)
|
Sep '01
|
LE
|
Passages about writing from L'Engle's books, recorded
workshops, etc.
|
|
|
The Ordering of Love: New
and Collected Poems of Madeleine L'Engle
released
by Waterbrook Press
|
Mar '05
|
|
poetry, included 18 previously unpublished poems
|
|
|
The Eye Begins to See
|
not yet completed
|
AF
|
adult novel
|
Meg Murry O'Keefe, O'Keefe family
|
|
*Prelude is a revised version of The Small Rain, intended
for younger readers. The novel was later republished under the original
title.
**The O'Keefe family consists of the former Meg Murry of the Murry
family, her husband, Dr. Calvin O'Keefe (who also appears in the Murry
family novels), and their many children, especially Poly (later called
Polly) and Charles.
***Glimpses of Grace is a collection of inspirational quotations
from L'Engle's other books, selected by Carole F Chase, who also wrote a
literary biography titled Madeleine L'Engle, Suncatcher: Spiritual
Vision of a Storyteller (San Diego: LuraMedia, 1995).
An expanded version of this book was published by Innisfree Press in
August 1998 as Suncatcher: A Study of Madeleine L'Engle and Her
Writing. I am indebted to Ms. Chase for some of the bibliographical
and biographical data provided here, taken both from her book and from her email.
Thank you!
|
|
Please note that book titles in maroon
are needed to complete my personal collection. (So are the
ones in navy, but I can find most of those
if I have the money to spend.) Please email
me if you have any copies of the titles listed in maroon for sale at a reasonable price (roughly
$10-$50, depending on format, condition, and scarcity). Also please email
me with any corrections, additions, or clarifications.
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|
Key to Book Types
Please note the YA-labeled books are
equally rewarding for children and adults.
|
|
AF = Adult Fiction
|
AP = Adult Play
|
BF = Biblical Short Fiction
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BR = Biblical Reflections
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CF = Children's Short Fiction
|
CJ = Crosswicks Journal
|
|
CP = Children's Play
|
CQ = Collected Quotations
|
LC = Literary Collection
|
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LE = Literary/Spiritual Essays
|
PO = Poetry
|
PR = Prayers
|
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TE= Theological Essays
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|
TJ = Theological Journal
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YAF=Young Adult Fiction
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YAM=YA Mystery/Suspense Fiction
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YSF = YA Science Fiction / Fantasy
|
Books
That Aren't Listed Here (Yet):
For some time now I've been compiling a list of books to which Madeleine
L'Engle has contributed an introduction, or a foreword, or an afterword, or
an essay, or even a short story or poem. In other words, they are books
primarily written by other people, but contain some material by Madeleine
L'Engle. A few notable examples are First Words: Earliest Writing
from Favorite Contemporary Authors, the introduction to a
compendium of Curious George stories, Miracles of
Christmas (which probably has the short story "Miracle on 10th
Street" in it), and Second Sight: Stories for a New Millennium,
which features a short story about Rob Austin. I hope to have the list
compiled and online sometime in the next month or so, if I can drag myself
away from the novels I'm revising for submission long enough to do the
work!
|
Books
That Don't Exist:
I've also come across references to the following titles, which appear
to have been announced but never published:
101st Miracle: I went back to the web reference for this
and it was gone. It was supposedly a collection of Madeleine L'Engle's
early short stories. Or was it her early work in general? In either case,
it does not exist, except as the title of a short story. Too bad, because I
know of only three works of early short fiction that can still be found.
One is "Poor Little Saturday" (1956) which is in several
anthologies. The other is "Six Good People," a story she wrote at
age 15 which appears along with some early L'Engle poetry in a book called First
Words: Earliest Writing from Favorite Contemporary Authors.
According to Madeline Trotter (thanks for the info!), the short story
"The One Hundred and First Miracle" appeared in a 1983 anthology
calld Nine Visions: A Book of Fantasies, edited by Andrea
LaSonde Melrose. This is probably out of print, but may still turn up
used.
Still, the possibility remains that a collection of early L'Engle short
stories may eventually be compiled and published. We'll just have to wait
and see.
Moses: Prince of Egypt.
This is referenced in the later edition of Suncatcher by
Carole F Chase, and a reader named Cindy found a reference to it at one
time on Barnes & Noble's web site as well as on the Amazon site. When
she ordered it, she received a children's book by someone else, which was
based on the Prince of Egypt movie. No current online references to
this book actually let you order it , so I assume it never came out, at
least not as written by Madeleine L'Engle.
My Own Private Place.
Various readers have also found references to this title, particularly on
the Barnes & Noble site. Like Moses: Prince of Egypt,
it almost certainly has never been published as of 3/02. Someone
recently emailed me that a book by this title does exist. If so, however,
it is not an entire book by Madeleine L'Engle.
At least some of the above books were probably postponed or canceled due
to Madeleine L'Engle's health difficulties in 1999-2000.
In addition to all this, online used book listings are often sloppily
written, leading to offerings of books with familiar but nonexistent
titles. I've seen listings for A Ring of Endless Night, The Other
Side of the Son, The Young Unicorn and several other incorrect
titles, all because someone barely glanced at the cover of the book being
sold. My favorite bogus title is from an old eBay listing, which offered a
trade paperback novel called Madeleine L'Engle by the nonexistent
author Mary Waters!
Thanks to Carole F. Chase, Chris Smith, Signe Myhren, Jim Meadows,
Jennifer Guimond, Kathy Ching, Alan Balthrop, Jamie Jensen and many
other L'Engle fans for their suggestions and encouragement. Most of all,
thanks to Madeleine L'Engle for making this web site necessary (not to
mention fun!).
You can help to build this web site! Information on out-of-print
editions will be gratefully accepted. I can always be reached at kfbofpql@aol.com. Please do NOT use
this email address to write to Madeleine L'Engle! I am NOT Madeleine
L'Engle, and she is NOT online!
I don't mind it when
children make this mistake, except for the fact that I have to disappoint
them by tell them their email didn't reach her. What really bothers me is
the email from adults, especially teachers, who don't read enough of the
website to know that email to kfbofpql@aol.com goes to Karen Funk Blocher,
not Madeleine L'Engle. I occasionally get email from entire elementary
school classes addressed to Madeleine L'Engle, all because a teacher didn't
do his or her research!
|
Links:
|
|
Madeleine
L'Engle FAQ Page, with a brief biography, answers to frequently asked
questions, and a guide to finding the L'Engle books you're missing (except
maybe Ilsa), plus a short list of books about Madeleine L'Engle and
her writing.
|
|
|
The
Novels of Madeleine L'Engle, with links to in-depth bibliographies and
to other L'Engle-related web sites.
|
|
|
(coming eventually) Other Works By Madeleine
L'Engle, more-or-less divided by category. I'll be putting this
together any year now.
|
|
|
Karen Funk
Blocher's Credos And Curios - my personal web page, with my bio,
bibliography, personal philosophy, and pictures of my dogs. This page also
has links to my Project Quantum Leap site and
other websites by myself and others.
|
|
|
Welcome to Mâvarin
- entry page to a web site about my unpublished series of fantasy
novels. The site contains sample text from the books plus apocryphal
"otherworld journal entries."
|
|
|
Recommended
Authors page - you know L'Engle is on it. Can you guess which
other writers I recommend?
|
|
|
Outpost
Mâvarin - my blog. Thoughts on ethics, religion, writers and
writing, language and more.
|
|
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(Some of) My
Favorite Quotes - favorite quotes from all over the place.
|
|
Contents copyright 1997-2006 by Karen Funk Blocher
except where otherwise noted. Last updated 4/1/06.
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|
