Fantasy author Madeleine L'Engle, it was announced, died yesterday, Sep 6th, in a nursing home of natural causes. She has been referred to as the female counter-part to Ray Bradbury.
Her most famous book, perhaps, is 'A Wrinkle in Time'. Wheaton College, in Wheaton, Illinois, has many of her original writings in the archival department. She was around 90 years old.
A true giant in literature. From what I read in the news she faded away in a nursing home. Makes you wonder in these instances how much family she had and what were the cicumstances that she couldn't be taken care of in her home.
Posts: 624 | Location: San Francisco | Registered: 27 October 2006
Yes, the Bradbury comparison jumped right out at me when I read her obituary in the local paper. "Keith Call, special collections assistant at Wheaton College in Illinois, which has a collection of L'Engle's papers, said he considers her the female counterpart of science fiction author Ray Bradbury because people loved her personally as much as they loved her books."
I've been a great fan of Madeleine's work for many years. For me, she was the author who, moreso than any other writer, really did make me think about life and death and what is really important. I would find myself wanting to be a better person, after reading her work. She is not as well known for her adult novels as her young adult fiction, but of those, I would have to say "A Severed Wasp" is one of my favourites...
Posts: 232 | Location: The Land of Trees and Heroes | Registered: 10 June 2007
Originally posted by Phil Knox: A true giant in literature. From what I read in the news she faded away in a nursing home. Makes you wonder in these instances how much family she had and what were the cicumstances that she couldn't be taken care of in her home.
Well, I suppose we don't really know what the situation was. I do know that her daughter visited her on a weekly basis in the nursing home, at any rate. It seems to me that a person should be able to die in the familiarity of their own home, but it simply does not always work out that way. We had to take my grandmother to the hospital, and then a nursing home, for the last six weeks of her life, which I wasn't happy about, but she needed care that could not be provided at home. On the other hand, we were able to take care of my grandfather here in the house until his dying day (at the remarkable age of 104), even though it meant that a family member had to be with him 24 hours a day, every day, for the last 18 months of his life....
Posts: 232 | Location: The Land of Trees and Heroes | Registered: 10 June 2007
One thing that Madeleine's last years brought home to me, is how life really is not fair. (Well, we all know that, but still...) She did a lot of good for many people over the years, and inspired so many with her writings. And yet she had a difficult old age, with many health problems (including the aftereffects of a terrible automobile accident---which was TOTALLY not her fault---back in 1991.) And I don't think she was ever able to get over or accept the tragic death (and unhappy life) of her only son Bion, who was the model for the character Rob Austin in her series of books about the Austin family... It's all rather sad...
Posts: 232 | Location: The Land of Trees and Heroes | Registered: 10 June 2007
It's amazing the amount of tragedy in almost any famous life, perhaps particularly of writers, although maybe I just read and pay attention more to stories of writers. One of the saddest things, to me, is people like Andre Norton who published shelves of books and still ended up financially badly off.
Posts: 7332 | Location: Dayton, Washington, USA | Registered: 03 December 2001
