About the Book
The New York Times-bestselling author of A Wrinkle in Time takes an introspective look at her life and muses on creativity in these four memoirs. Set against the lush backdrop of Crosswicks, Madeleine L'Engle's family farmhouse in rural Connecticut, this series of memoirs reveals the complexity behind the beloved author whose works have long been cherished by children and adults alike.
A Circle of Quiet: In a deeply personal account, L'Engle shares her journey to find balance between her career as an author and her responsibilities as a wife, mother, teacher, and Christian.
The Summer of the Great-Grandmother: Four generations of family have gathered at Crosswicks to care for L'Engle's ninety-year-old mother, whose health is rapidly declining and whose once astute mind is slipping into senility. L'Engle takes an unflinching look at diminishment and death, all the while celebrating the wonder of life and the bonds between mothers and daughters.
The Irrational Season: Exploring the intersection of science and religion, L'Engle uncovers how her spiritual convictions inform and enrich the everyday. The memoir follows the liturgical year from one Advent to the next, with L'Engle's reflections on the changing seasons in her own life as a writer, wife, mother, and global citizen.
Two-Part Invention: L'Engle beautifully evokes the life she and her husband, actor Hugh Franklin, built and the family they cherished. Beginning with their very different childhoods, their life in New York City in the 1940s, and their years spent raising their children at Crosswicks, this is L'Engle's most personal work yet.
Offering a new perspective into her writing and life and how the two inform each other, the National Book Award-winning author explores the meanings behind motherhood, marriage, and faith.
About the Author :
Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) was an American author of more than sixty books, including novels for children and adults, poetry, and religious meditations. Her best-known work, A Wrinkle in Time, one of the most beloved young adult books of the twentieth century and a Newbery Medal winner, has sold more than fourteen million copies since its publication in 1962. Her other novels include A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and A Ring of Endless Light. Born in New York City, L'Engle graduated from Smith College and worked in theater, where she met her husband, actor Hugh Franklin. L'Engle documented her marriage and family life in the four-book autobiographical series, the Crosswicks Journals. She also served as librarian and writer-in-residence at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan for more than thirty years.
Review :
Praise for A Circle of Quiet
"Fans will enjoy meeting the people, the cultural passions, the real-life situations that are transformed into loving husbands, large happy families, artistic adolescents, prescient children, and illuminating vignettes in L'Engle's books." --The New York Times Book Review "My favorite of all Madeleine L'Engle's books. Lovely, charming, a book to cherish. I know it will give great consolation to ordinary people who sometimes wonder why they bother to get out of bed in the morning." --Jean Kerr
"[L'Engle provides] 'glimpses on the other side of intellect'--of love, creativity, awareness, joy, compassion." --Kirkus Reviews
"All kinds of truth." --Kwame Alexander
Praise for The Summer of the Great-Grandmother
"Anyone who has dealt with, or will soon deal with, the death of a parent will find some solace, understanding, and companionship in this perceptive book, which is, in the end, more about living than about dying." --The Washington Post
Praise for The Irrational Season
"It's hard to imagine readers failing to get a spiritual lift from The Irrational Season. . . . The book is especially valuable, for it's an exploration of L'Engle's life as a professional woman, wife, mother, and grandmother." --Publishers Weekly
Praise for Two-Part Invention
"L'Engle's chronicle is filled with a sense of adventure of life, as well as with an awareness of the terrible surprises that lie in wait for all of us. . . . [A work] by turns joyous and melancholy, painful and touching." --Diane Cole, USA Today
"A touching, vivid chronicle." --Michael Dorris, Chicago Tribune
