Madeleine L'Engle

[naomikritzer]

When I was a kid, maybe nine or ten years old, Madeleine L'Engle came through Madison on an autograph/lecture tour. I saw a notice about it in the paper and demanded that my mother take me to the talk, even though it was intended for adults. When she started taking questions, I raised my hand, because I had been confused by the ending of A Wind in the Door and wanted her to explain to me what had happened to Progo. I was terribly afraid that he was dead at the end, and I really didn't want that to be true.

She called on me immediately, and I started to ask my question -- and every adult in the room turned around to look at me. I was not exactly a shy and retiring kid, but that was intimidating enough that I became completely inaudible. She tried to get me to speak up, and when she still couldn't hear me, she got down from the lectern and strode down the aisle (commenting that I'd probably hate her forever for doing this to me!), and had me come out into the aisle to meet her, and crouched down so that we could have a private conversation. And then she reassured me that no, Progo hadn't died; the wind in the door, at the end of the book, was him returning.

I went in to the signing the next day, too, and my mother bought me a copy of the Wrinkle in Time trilogy (previously, I hadn't owned my own copies -- I had read it at school and then checked it out repeatedly from the library, I think) and I stood in line to have her sign the books. I still have the signed copies, but since I got them when I was a kid, and didn't think in terms of collectibles, I read that copy of Wrinkle in Time pretty much to pieces.

*

Last spring, haddayr posted the following advice immediately after the death of Lloyd Alexander: Write to your childhood heroes BEFORE they die. I immediately thought of Madeleine L'Engle, who I'd never written to.

Later that month, I was at Wiscon. At some point during a conversation, desayunoencama told me that Madeleine L'Engle had died some time ago. I thought he must be wrong (because surely I'd have heard!) but not certain, and immediately thought of Haddayr's post. I hadn't, and it was too late! Unless Lawrence was wrong.

I got home, found that he was wrong, and sat down and wrote my letter. I thought it was unlikely that she would read it. High-profile children's authors get quite a lot of mail, thanks to teachers who make everyone write to their favorite author, and Madeleine L'Engle has been the favorite author of a lot of people over the years. Particularly nerdy girls who wear glasses and feel like total misfits.

I'm pretty sure that in fact she did not read the letter, though her family member who handles her mail did. I got a form letter about how she was doing (she'd been in a nursing home for some time) with a kind handwritten addition from the family member. I was glad, regardless, that I'd sent it.

*

Like Haddayr, I still would have been a writer had I never read Wrinkle in Time. But I'd be a different writer, and a different person.

Comments

[librarianpm.livejournal.com]

A quick correction, because I love her name - it's Madeleine, not Madeline.

Thanks for sharing your story about meeting her! She was such an amazing person, as well as a writer. In high school, I read every book she had written obsessively, but especially her autobiographical works and the Austin series for YA, which were most closely based on her own family. She really shared a lot of her life, marriage, etc. so publicly in her writing (the good and the bad.) And I always identified with her even though of course at 16 I hadn't gone through what she had. I wish I had written to her then to tell her how much she meant to me, especially the books that didn't get recognized as much as Wrinkle did. Or at least tried to visit her at the Cathedral of St John the Divine library when she worked there, something I always thought about on trips to NYC, but never had the courage to do.

I was really saddened to hear she died in a nursing home, and not in her Connecticut home, Crosswicks, that she wrote so much about. It especially bothered me because one of the Austin books includes the death of their grandfather at home, and really made it clear how much she abhorred nursing homes, hospitals, etc. as places. I'm sure she was well cared for in the nursing home, and perhaps she didn't have the money any more for home care. Who knows, but it makes me sad.

I agree, though, that she's definitely someone whose writings made me a different person.

[naomikritzer]

According to the letter (which echoed information I had read elsewhere, she initially went to a nursing home to receive intensive physical therapy after a fall. (She had osteoperosis, and fractured some of the vertebrae in her back.) I expect she had the money to pay for in-home care, but the nursing home, unlike Crosswicks, was very close to her daughter Josephine and her family. Adult children often scatter to distant parts; it's often a choice between the independence of your own home, and living close enough to see family daily or weekly instead of once or twice a year. (Also, in-home care for a seriously disabled elderly person requires vigilant management. My husband's grandfather was cared for at home by round-the-clock nursing care for his last years, but Ed's mother lived next door and knew whether people were showing up, caring for him adequately, etc.)

[naomikritzer]

(And thank you for the spelling correction; I've fixed it.)

[pennski.livejournal.com]

Thank-you for sharing this. I love her books. It's great to hear from someone who met her.

[imponderabilias.livejournal.com]

What a wonderful story about meeting her. But you made me tear up when you talked about writing to her - and gave me quite a bit of future author-writing work. Still, it's very good advice.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

That's a wonderful story -- thank you for sharing it :) It makes me happy to know that she was as kind a person as I always imagined she would be. And reminds me that it's time to re-read A Wrinkle in Time again.

[jmartin2.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing your story -- knowing that one of my very favorite authors was so kind to you means a lot to me.

My sister took me to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine one year at Christmastime as an early present. We stopped near the gate to read a posting of who would be delivering the sermon that day and were disappointed to find that it would not be the person we had thought it would be (whoever that was, they've been permanently forgotten to me now) -- then saw that it would be Madeleine L'Engle! We ran the whole rest of the way to the Cathedral, leaving my then-boyfriend to wonder what the heck was going on, and got the best seats we could find. Unfortunately they weren't very good, and I don't remember much of what was said because it was very difficult to hear her -- but just to be in her presence! Merry Christmas indeed!

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you thank you THANK you for this.

Have you seen the piece by the man who lived in her building in the 60s?

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzgwYWY0ZjQ4NWYwZjdiOTNhNWFkZjMyZTJlNGQyYzY=

[naomikritzer]

I hadn't seen that -- what a lovely story.

She has a children's picture book that I discovered after Kiera was born called "The Other Dog." It's a book about sibling rivalry written from the point of view of the poodle (who was, previously, an only dog, and who is thoroughly unimpressed by the thoroughly inadequate, hairless and tail-less additional dog that unexpectedly arrives). The dog in the story is based on her real dog, one of the fluffy poodles described by the former neighbor.