Since graduating cum laude from Smith College in 1941, Madeleine L'Engle has been an actress, country storekeeper, wife, and mother. This background provided an excellent variety of materials for her writing, an activity she considers "an essential function, like sleeping and breathing."
Born November 29, 1918, Miss L'Engle grew up in New York City, Switzerland, South Carolina, and Massachusetts. Her father was a reporter and her mother had studied to be a pianist, so their house was always full of musicians and theater people. After Smith, she returned to New York to work in the theater, thinking it an excellent school for an aspiring playwright. While touring with Eva Le Gallienne and Joseph Schildkraut in Uncle Harry, Madeleine L'Engle wrote her first book, The Small Rain (originally published in 1945 and reissued in 1984). She met her future husband, Hugh Franklin, when they both appeared in The Cherry Orchard with Miss Le Gallienne, and they were married on tour during the run of The Joyous Season starring Ethel Barrymore.
Upon becoming Mrs. Franklin, Madeleine gave up the stage in favor of the typewriter. In the years her children, Josephine, Maria, and Bion, were growing up, she wrote four more novels.
When Hugh Franklin temporarily retired from the theater, the family moved to western Connecticut and opened a general store. Madeleine says, "A lot of what I learned in our store was of immense value to a writer. Our customers included gypsies, carnival men, farmers, factory workers, artists, and philosophers. I have already published one book written directly out of our life there. It's called Meet the Austins, but it could easily be called 'Meet the Franklins!' " Meet the Austins is one of the American Library Association Notable Children's Books of 1960.
After ten years in Connecticut, the Franklins moved to New York City. Hugh Franklin returned to the theater and is particularly well known for his role as Dr. Charles Tyler in the television series All My Children. Mr. Franklin died in 1986. Two-Part Invention (1988) is the story of the Franklins' loving marriage.
Madeleine L'Engle's science fantasy classic A Wrinkle in Time was awarded the 1963 Newbery Medal for "the most distinguished contribution to children's literature" published in the previous year. Two companion novels, A Wind in the Door (1973) and A Swiftly Tilting Planet (1978), complete what has come to be known as The Time Trilogy, which continues to grow in popularity with a new generation of readers. Madeleine L'Engle's most recent novel, Troubling a Star, continues the story of Vicki Austin, the budding teenage poet in A Ring of Endless Light (1980), which was a Newbery Honor Book. Kirkus Reviews praised Troubling a Star in a highlighted review, calling it "a story that is perfectly seasoned with just the right amount of everything," and concluding: "L'Engle is a master."
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