Madeleine L'Engle

by Aaron Rosenberg

Best known for her young adult novel A Wrinkle in Time, and fiction that merges fantasy, science, and theology, Madeleine L’Engle received the National Humanities Medal twelve days before her eighty-sixth birthday. This engaging biography offers a glimpse into the life and work of one of America’s favorite authors who inspires readers with characters who make a real effort to learn and grow, and are rewarded for the pain they’ve suffered. In it we learn her work methods, and that her goal in writing a book is to ask questions, hoping her book will help find the answers.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

112 pages, Library Binding

First published June 1, 2005

About the author

Aaron Rosenberg is an award-winning, bestselling novelist, children’s book author, and game designer. He's written original fiction (including the NOOK-bestselling humorous science fiction novel No Small Bills, the Dread Remora space-opera series, and the O.C.L.T. supernatural thriller series), tie-in novels (including the PsiPhi winner Collective Hindsight for Star Trek: SCE, the Daemon Gates trilogy for Warhammer, Tides of Darkness and the Scribe-nominated Beyond the Dark Portal for WarCraft, Hunt and Run for Stargate: Atlantis, and Substitution Method and Road Less Traveled for Eureka), young adult novels (including the Scribe-winning Bandslam: The Novel and books for iCarly and Ben10), children's books (including an original Scholastic Bestseller series, Pete and Penny's Pizza Puzzles, and work for PowerPuff Girls and Transformers Animated), roleplaying games (including original games like Asylum and Spookshow, the Origins Award-winning Gamemastering Secrets, and sections of The Supernatural Roleplaying Game, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and The Deryni Roleplaying Game), short stories, webcomics, essays, and educational books. He has ranged from mystery to speculative fiction to drama to comedy, always with the same intent—to tell a good story. You can visit him online at gryphonrose.com or follow him on Twitter @gryphonrose.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now with regard to Aaron Rosenberg's presented text for his 2006 birth to almost death biography of Madeleine L'Engle (and I say almost death since Madeleine L'Engle died in 2007, so that in 2006, she was of course still alive), yes indeed and in my humble opinion Rosenberg's Madeleine L'Engle is textually delightful, informative and also (and really very importantly and essentially) never ever features a so-called tell-all life story of Madeleine L'Engle keen on digging up scandals and dirt (and in fact, Aaron Rosenberg repeatedly calls out those annoying and problematic Madeleine L'Engle biographers and paparazzi like journalists who for example have over the decades tried to and at times quite nastily insinuate that Madeleine L'Engle's son Bion died due to long term alcohol abuse, even though there is in fact absolutely no proof of this and who seemed more interested in rumour and innuendo than in Madeleine L'Engle's career as a writer, as an author).

So yes, it is thus really refreshing that in Madeleine L'Engle Aaron Rosenberg focuses mostly if not even only on those parts of L'Engle's life which have been and continue to be important and essential regarding her becoming a writer (and I do love that just like with me Madeleine L’Engle always considered Lucy Maud Montgomery as one of her favourite authors and Emily Byrd Starr as her favourite Montgomery character) and also that there are NO author interjections and personal interpretations regarding both Madeleine L'Engle's life and her oeuvre presented in Madeleine L'Engle, that Aaron Rosenberg keeps his text delightfully factual and refrains from putting in his own proverbial two cents' worth of interpretation and philosophical musings into Madeleine L’Engle (something that I do majorly appreciate in biographies simply because I have read far far too many that do the exact opposite).

And while Aaron Rosenberg does feature and portray in Madeleine L'Engle some minor interpretations and analyses of in particular the Tine Quartet novels, Rosenberg does fortunately and appreciatively not provide anything too in-depth and with too many spoilers attached (although I am a little bit annoyed that there are not similar details presented in Madeleine L'Engle about the Austin Family and the Polly O'Keefe novels). But truly and finally, with regard Madeleine L'Engle, I also very much appreciate that Aaron Rosenberg also includes some very nice supplementals, such as a Madeleine L’Engle interview with Amazon, lists of her writings and awards, a biographical time-line, a glossary and multiple bibliographies, and that for me, Madeleine L’Engle is most definitely both solidly four stars and as such also warmly recommended.