Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle (born November 29, 1918 in New York , † September 6, 2007 in Litchfield , Connecticut , USA ) was an American author of numerous books for children and adults.
Life
Madeleine L'Engle grew up as the daughter of journalist and author Charles Wadsworth Camp and pianist Madeleine Hall Barnett Camp.
L'Engle moved to Europe with her parents when she was twelve and lived in France and Switzerland , where she went to boarding schools . Her parents hoped that the air of the French and Swiss Alps would alleviate the symptoms of their father, who had burned his lungs with mustard gas during the First World War .
Two years later they returned to South Carolina , USA, where Madeleine Ashley Hall in Charleston , again attended boarding school, and studied English at Smith College after the death of her father . In 1941 she graduated with honors there. During her stay at college, L'Engle wrote plays and short stories .
The young college graduate moved to Greenwich Village , where she worked briefly as an actress in the theater and there she met her future husband, the actor Hugh Franklin .
In 1945 L'Engles first novel The Small Rain appeared , which she wrote more or less backstage and between rehearsals, followed by Ilsa (1946). After their wedding, L'Engle retired from the theater and now had more time to concentrate fully on writing. However, after the initial successes, most of the subsequent manuscripts were rejected by publishers. During this time, L'Engle gave birth to their first child, their daughter Josephine.
After her husband had turned his back on the theater in 1952, they bought a farmhouse in Connecticut and kept their heads above water by running a small shop. The family adopted a girl, Maria, and L'Engle had another son, Bion.
In addition to the daily chores in the business and the upbringing of her three small children, Madeleine L'Engle found the time to pursue her great passion, writing, at best at night. After only A Winter's Love was published in 1957 , she wanted to give up the writing because of the burden and the constant rejection on the part of the publishers, which she soon rejected.
1960 published L'Engle the children's book Meet the Austins ( We Austin ) - again after a long time of rejection. It later became one of her most popular books. At this time, L'Engle and Franklin decided to return to New York , where L'Engle could concentrate fully on writing again.
Finally, in 1962, the book was published, which undoubtedly represented the cornerstone of their success: A Wrinkle in Time (German editions under the title Die Zeitfalte , also Spiralnebel 101 and Das Zeiträtsel ). After L'Engle had offered the story to publishers in vain for two and a half years, this book won her the coveted Newbery Medal in 1963 - a great satisfaction. Writer Dan Brown told the New York Times that while reading the book he first became aware of "the magic of storytelling" and the "power of the printed word."
Inspired by her success, her return to New York and her work as the librarian of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine , L'Engle wrote a lot in the coming years, including continuing the popular Austin series ( The Moon by Night , 1963 and The Young Unicorns , 1968). By 1989, other novels followed that tied in with the events in Die Zeitfalte . L'Engles husband returned to acting and became the star of the soap opera All My Children .
From now on Madeleine L'Engle wrote unchecked. The loss of her husband, who died of cancer on September 26, 1986, could not stop her either.
It was not until the death of her son Bion on December 17, 1999 that she was so affected that her work almost came to a standstill. Bion, the real godfather of several central figures in their oeuvre, allegedly died of the consequences of his alcohol abuse. This was always vehemently denied by L'Engle. In addition, L'Engle had to undergo two hip operations in recent years and also suffered a stroke in 2002 .
After Madeleine L'Engle initially lived with her family in New York City, in early 2007 she moved to a care facility near her daughter Josephine in northern Connecticut due to her deteriorating health.
L'Engle died in September 2007 at the age of 88.
plant
Madeleine L'Engles literary role models are L. Frank Baum ( The Wizard of Oz ) , Lucy Maud Montgomery ( Anne of Green Gables ) and above all George MacDonald ( Lilith ) , whom she read at a young age, which she later describes as an impressive experience .
As a child, L'Engle was sent from one boarding school to the next, where she was marginalized by her classmates. As a result, many of their stories are about happy, strong families and the struggles of outsiders to integrate. Her enormous interest in the natural sciences also found its way into her stories. Especially the Murry-O'Keefes hit series, with A Wrinkle in Time as a starting point, shows her interest in quantum and astrophysics , chaos theory and human genetics .
From the 1970s onwards, references to Christian motifs in her works became increasingly important. The fictional publications mix with volumes of poetry and prayer. Figures from the Bible also appear more frequently in the novels .
Characteristic for the more than 60 published books is an unusual range of topics: science fiction , mystery , adventure , poems , prayers , biblical stories, plays, theological essays - many of them works for children, some for young adults, but also Texts for all ages.
In addition, there are cross-genre connections between a large number of her works. Many characters from different books or book series appear again and again and often have a significant influence on the lives of the protagonists in other book series. So everything, children's books and adult novels, come together to form a complex complete work with great depth.
She has received numerous prizes and awards for her work. The most highly decorated book, A Wrinkle in Time , was removed from the libraries of two American elementary schools in 1985 and 1990 . Reason: On the one hand, the book promotes witchcraft , crystal balls and demons , on the other hand, concerned parents complained that the name Jesus Christ is in the same breath as the names of great artists, philosophers, scientists and spiritual leaders, in connection with the fight against evil was called. However, these remained isolated cases.
Despite L'Engles' refusal for decades, she finally allowed the Disney studios to film two of her books. First came the 2002 television film A Ring of Endless Light ( The Voice of the Sea ), and two years later the Disney Channel broadcast its version of A Wrinkle in Time . Madeleine L'Engle said she was disappointed with the result.
Awards
- 1963: Newbery Medal for A Wrinkle in Time
- 1997: World Fantasy Award for life's work
- 1998: Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association for Great Service in Youth Literature
- 2017: Science Fiction Hall of Fame , posthumous admission
bibliography
- Murry family (Kairos novel cycle)
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A Wrinkle in Time (1962)
- German: Spiralnebel 101: A more than adventurous story. Translated by Martha Johanna Hofmann. Claudius-Verlag, Munich 1968. Also as: Die Zeitfalte . Übers. Wolf Harranth . Thienemann, Stuttgart 1984 ISBN 3-522-13890-2 . Also as dtv-Junior # 70127, 1988, ISBN 3-423-70127-7 .
-
A Wind in the Door (1973)
- German: The crack in space. Übers. Wolf Harranth. Thienemann, Stuttgart 1985 ISBN 3-522-13970-4 . Also as dtv-Junior # 70160, 1989 ISBN 3-423-70160-9
-
A Swiftly Tilting Planet (1978)
- German: Through time and space. Übers. Wolf Harranth. Thienemann, Stuttgart 1985 ISBN 3-522-16030-4 . Also as dtv-Junior # 70179, 1989 ISBN 3-423-70179-X
-
Many Waters (1986)
- German: The great flood. Übers. Wolf Harranth. Thienemann, Stuttgart 1989 ISBN 3-522-16570-5 . Also as dtv-junior # 70247, 1992 ISBN 3-423-70247-8
- O'Keefe Family (Kairos novel cycle)
- The Arm of the Starfish (1965)
- Dragons in the Waters (1976)
- A House Like a Lotus (1984)
- An Acceptable Time (1989)
- Austin family (cycle)
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Meet the Austins (1960)
- German: We Austins . Translator Lena Stepath. Klopp, Berlin 1963. Also as Ravensburger paperback # 114.
-
The Moon by Night (1963)
- English: The moon over the hills. Übers. Inge M. Artl. Ueberreuter, Vienna & Heidelberg 1967.
- The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas: An Austin Family Story (1964)
- The Young Unicorns (1968)
- The Anti-Muffins (1980)
- A Ring of Endless Light (1980)
- Troubling a Star (1994)
- Miracle on 10th Street (1998)
- A Full House: An Austin Family Christmas (1999)
- Novels
- The Small Rain (1955)
- Ilsa (1946)
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And Both Were Young (1949)
- German: Philippa. Translated by Edith Kranz-Russell. Buje-Verlag, 1956
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Camilla Dickinson (1965)
- German: Camilla. Übers. Inge M. Artl. Ueberreuter, Vienna 1971, ISBN 3-8000-2629-5
- A Winter's Love (1957)
- The Love Letters (1966)
- The Journey with Jonah (1968)
- Prelude (1972)
- The Other Side of the Sun (1972)
- Dragons in the Waters (1976)
- A Severed Wasp (1984)
- A House Like a Lotus (1984)
- Many Waters (1986)
- An Acceptable Time (1989)
- Short stories
- Poor Little Saturday (1956)
- The Black Thing (1962)
- Pakko's Camel (1982)
- The Sphinx at Dawn (1982)
- The One Hundred and First Miracle (1983)
- The Connecticut Eskimo (1991)
- Pieces
- 18 Washington Square, South (1940)
- How Now Brown Cow (1949, with Robert Hartung)
- The Journey with Jonah (1967, first performed 1970)
- Poems
- Lines Scribbled on an Envelope and Other Poems (1969)
- Weather of the Heart (1978)
- A Cry Like a Bell (1987)
- Children's books
- Dance in the Desert (1969)
- Everyday Prayers (1974)
- Prayers for Sunday (1974)
- Ladder of Angels: Scenes from the Bible Illustrated by Children of the World (1979)
- The Glorious Impossible (1990)
- Essays and miscellaneous
- A Circle of Quiet (1972)
- The Summer of the Great-Grandmother (1974)
- The Irrational Season (1977)
- Walking on Water (1982)
- And It Was Good: Reflections on Beginnings (1983)
- Dare to Be Creative (1984)
- Trailing Clouds of Glory: Spiritual Values in Children's Literature (1985, with Avery Brooke)
- A Stone for a Pillow (1987)
- Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage (1988, autobiography)
- Sold into Egypt: Joseph's Journey into Human Being (1989)
literature
- Hans Joachim Alpers , Werner Fuchs , Ronald M. Hahn : Reclam's science fiction guide. Reclam, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-15-010312-6 , p. 263.
- Hans Joachim Alpers, Werner Fuchs, Ronald M. Hahn, Wolfgang Jeschke : Lexicon of Science Fiction Literature. Heyne, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-453-02453-2 , p. 661.
- Carole F. Chase: Suncatcher: A Study of Madeleine L'Engle and Her Writing . Innisfree Press, Sept. 1998, ISBN 1880913313 . Biography, bibliography and literary study. With a foreword by Madeleine L'Engle.
- John Clute , David Langford : L'Engle, Madeleine. In: John Clute, Peter Nicholls : The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction . 3rd edition (online edition), version dated March 4, 2018.
- Donald R. Hettinga: Presenting Madeleine L'Engle , Twayne's United States Authors Series # 622, 1993. Literary study.
- Shelly Lowenkopf: L'Engle, Madeleine . In: Noelle Watson, Paul E. Schellinger: Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers. St. James Press, Chicago 1991, ISBN 1-55862-111-3 , pp. 482-484.
- Robert Reginald : Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature. A Checklist, 1700–1974 with Contemporary Science Fiction Authors II. Gale, Detroit 1979, ISBN 0-8103-1051-1 , pp. 973 f.
- Jacqueline R. Wytenbroek: L'Engle, Madeleine . In: James Gunn : The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Viking, New York et al. a. 1988, ISBN 0-670-81041-X , pp. 273 f.
Web links
- Literature by and about Madeleine L'Engle in the catalog of the German National Library
- Madeleine L'Engle in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)
- Madeleine L'Engle in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Works by and about Madeleine L'Engle at Open Library
- Literature by and about Charles Wadsworth Camp in the WorldCat bibliographic database
- Official Homepage of M. L'Engle (Engl.)
- Madeleine L'Engle in Fantastic Fiction (English)
- The Tesseract - A Madeleine L'Engle Bibliography in 5 Dimensions (Engl.)
- Bonastra - The Madeleine L'Engle Web Resource (engl.) ( Memento of 22 February 2009 at the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | L'Engle, Madeleine |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Camp, Madeleine L'Engle (maiden name); Franklin, Madeleine L'Engle Camp (married name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American writer |
DATE OF BIRTH | November 29, 1918 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City |
DATE OF DEATH | September 6, 2007 |
Place of death | Litchfield (Connecticut) |