SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About/Contact
  • *Best New Books*
    • Annual Best Lists
  • Reviews
    • One Star Review
    • Nonfiction
    • Toon Reviews
  • Articles
    • Authors
    • Link Du Jour
  • Covers
    • Covering the Newbery
    • Cover Curiosity
    • Unfortunate Covers
  • News
    • Books on Film
    • Morning Notes
  • Newsletter

February 5, 2018 by Travis Jonker

Some Things You Might Not Know about Madeleine L’Engle

February 5, 2018 by Travis Jonker   2 comments

Something a bit different today – a piece about children’s literature legend Madeleine L’Engle.

Becoming Madeleine

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

L’Engle’s granddaughters Charlotte Jones Voiklis and Léna Roy have written a biography about her, which is out tomorrow (Feb. 6, 2018), and I asked Léna to share a three things that surprised her most while writing the bio.

Léna, the floor is all yours . . .

Léna Roy: My sister and I were very close to our grandmother, who by the time we were born, had already become very much herself. We knew her as an empathetic woman, deeply connected to her feelings, and for that reason, she was able to connect with kids at any age and point of development. She was an adult who “got” us — she made us feel seen as she did millions of other people who read her books. She corresponded with so many who said that her words gave them permission to be themselves.

So of course as we came into older adulthood, indeed becoming more ourselves, we were fascinated by the idea of how our Gran became Madeleine L’Engle and wanted to share our perspective with the world. Writing our grandmother’s biography Becoming Madeleine was a wonderful process of discovery, bringing her back to life. Here are three of the things that surprised us the most.

#1: Growing Up

We knew that in her early childhood she was alone but not lonely. As an only child, she had a rich imagination that was more than enough company. But that solitude morphed into intense loneliness when she was a pre-adolescent and abandoned at a Swiss boarding school. Because of the terrors of adolescence, we had assumed that she couldn’t wait to be an adult. So we were surprised to learn that she, as a child, didn’t look forward to growing up at all. Her parents after all, weren’t happy, but if she could stay a child, she still would have endless possibilities in front of her. She didn’t want to lose all of the selves she was creating with her imagination. She would hover on the sidelines of her parents “grown-up” parties, observing the adults and terrified at the thought of being one of “them”. The Gran we knew aged fabulously — she was never ashamed of it or tried to be younger. (Although part of her did remain young — she was after all, “every age she’d ever been!”)

#2: Ambition

We knew that she always wanted to be a writer, but we didn’t know just how ambitious she was. You will see in her earnest journal entries that she put her heart and soul into that yearning for success and recognition.

We knew that she adored her father, what we didn’t know is that his attitude towards failure and success were passed down to her, fueling that ambition. Her father ended up seeing himself as a failure as a writer, and we were surprised to learn that he was, for Gran, a cautionary tale. He didn’t seem like a failed writer to us in the sense that he was published many times over, and he also was a journalist. We were surprised to learn that his frustrated ambition (after WWI he couldn’t get published) caused him such misery that Gran was afraid of what failure might do to her. She blamed him for not being disciplined enough, so she was driven to be disciplined in her writing and other habits.

#3: Playwriting

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

After she graduated from Smith College, she moved to Greenwich Village to make a go of it in the theater. We knew that she saw this as the best education for a writer, but we didn’t know that her ambition was to be a playwright, and how hard she worked to make the right connections in the theater. She wrote a play specifically for an actress, Eva Le Gallienne, who had a loose connection to Smith and she had the “possibility” of meeting. She was dogged, and when she did eventually meet the great actress, although the play was never performed, Gran became part of her theater company and started working on her first novel based on the theater and her own experiences. Her second novel was based on the play she had been writing for Miss Le Gallienne.

Thus she got her foot in the door and started making a name for herself, and never looked back. Her intense writing discipline and ambition made it possible for her to publish sixty books in her lifetime, despite ten years of near constant rejection before A Wrinkle in Time cemented her reputation.

These discoveries helped us to deeply understand our Gran’s own narrative arc and how she was Becoming Madeleine: her fear of growing up turned into a profound respect for childhood, and her fear of failure fueled her ambition and discipline as a writer. And it was her passion for theater that paved the way for her as a novelist.

Lena Roy Headshot

Léna Roy works with young writers in Westchester and Connecticut as the Regional Manager for Writopia Lab. She is also the author of the young adult novel, Edges. She lives in New York.

Filed under: Articles

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments

About Travis Jonker

Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

February 2023

Notes on January 2023

by Travis Jonker

January 2023

Your 2023 Caldecott Comment Card

by Travis Jonker

January 2023

Who's Published the Most Newbery Winners in the Last 25 Years?

by Travis Jonker

January 2023

2023 Caldecott Medal Predictions

by Travis Jonker

January 2023

The Ten Most Eye-Opening Caldecott Books of All Time

by Travis Jonker

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

Surprise! Announcing CABOOSE

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Jump Into this Guest Post by Shadra Strickland About Her Latest Book: Jump In!

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Kiss Number 8 | Review

by Johanna

Heavy Medal

What’s Coming in 2023, A Feedback Poll, and Goodbye for Now…

by Steven Engelfried

Teen Librarian Toolbox

WRITING FOR YOURSELF FIRST, a guest post by author M. K. Lobb

by Karen Jensen, MLS

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

A Book 25 Years in the Making: Marla Frazee Visits The Yarn

by Travis Jonker

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

24 Audiobooks To Encourage Ongoing Activism and Social Justice

4 Middle Grade & YA Nonfiction Titles to Help Heal the World

Three Picture Books to Celebrate Black History

6 Middle Grade & YA Novels on Repeat for Groundhog Day

Looking for a Book to Read Aloud? These Classics Made the Hall of Fame.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jen Bryant says

    February 7, 2018 at 9:18 am

    This is fascinating stuff–thanks for sharing it!

  2. Laura Purdie Salas says

    February 7, 2018 at 4:40 pm

    I love Madeleine L’Engle–one of my favorite writers of children’s novels (named our daughter Madeleine largely after her). Can’t wait to read this!

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

  • Author/Illustrator Blogs

    • Erin Stead Illustration
    • Hey, Rabbit!
    • James Preller's Blog
    • MATTHEWCORDELLBLOGS
    • Mo Willems Doodles
    • The Scop
  • Book Blogs I Like

    • A Book and a Hug
    • A Fuse #8 Production
    • A Kids Book a Day
    • A Year of Reading
    • Abby (the) Librarian
    • Awful Library Books
    • Becky’s Book Reviews
    • Better Book Titles
    • Book-A-Day Almanac
    • Bookends
    • books4yourkids.com
    • bookshelves of doom
    • Bottom Shelf Books
    • Calling Caldecott
    • Caustic Cover Critic
    • Chad C. Beckerman
    • Charlotte’s Library
    • Cheryl Rainfield
    • Chicken Spaghetti
    • CHILDREN’S ILLUSTRATION
    • Collecting Children’s Books
    • Cybils
    • EarlyWord
    • educating alice
    • Finding Wonderland
    • For Those About to Mock
    • Good Comics for Kids
    • Good Show Sir
    • GottaBook
    • Great Kid Books
    • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
    • Hi Miss Julie!
    • Jen Robinson’s Book Page
    • Kidsmomo
    • Maria T. Middleton Design
    • Nerdy Book Club
    • Neverending Search
    • Nine Kinds of Pie
    • One Book, Two Books, Old Books, New Books
    • Out of the Box
    • Oz and Ends
    • PlanetEsme
    • Read Roger
    • Reading Rants!
    • Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
    • sharpread
    • ShelfTalker
    • so tomorrow
    • The Children's Book Review
    • The Miss Rumphius Effect
    • Uncovered Cover Art
    • Waking Brain Cells
    • Watch. Connect. Read.
  • Library Blogs

    • ALSC Blog
    • Blue Skunk Blog
    • librarian.net
    • LISNews
    • Stephen's Lighthouse
    • Tame The Web: Libraries and Technology
    • Tame The Web: Libraries and Technology
    • Unshelved
  • Follow This Blog

    Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

    This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

    This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

    Primary Sidebar

    • News & Features
    • Reviews+
    • Technology
    • School Libraries
    • Public Libraries
    • Age Level
    • Ideas
    • Blogs
    • Classroom
    • Diversity
    • People
    • Job Zone

    Reviews+

    • Book Lists
    • Best Books
    • Media
    • Reference
    • Series Made Simple
    • Tech
    • Review for SLJ
    • Review Submissions

    SLJ Blog Network

    • 100 Scope Notes
    • A Fuse #8 Production
    • Good Comics for Kids
    • Heavy Medal
    • Neverending Search
    • Teen Librarian Toolbox
    • The Classroom Bookshelf
    • The Yarn

    Resources

    • 2022 Youth Media Awards
    • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
    • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
    • Summer Reading 2021
    • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
    • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
    • Summer Programming Survey
    • Research
    • White Papers / Case Studies
    • School Librarian of the Year
    • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
    • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

    Events & PD

    • In-Person Events
    • Online Courses
    • Virtual Events
    • Webcasts
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Subscribe
    • Media Inquiries
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Content Submissions
    • Data Privacy
    • Terms of Use
    • Terms of Sale
    • FAQs
    • Diversity Policy
    • Careers at MSI


    COPYRIGHT © 2023


    COPYRIGHT © 2023