Nice piece, P-Cow. This quote was a little distressing:
"If I had gone to Ace Books in 1981 and pitched a novel set in a world with a sexually contagious disease that destroys the human immune system and that is raging across most of the world -- particularly badly in Africa -- they might have said, 'Not bad. A little toasty. That's kind of interesting.'
"But I'd say -- ' But wait! Also, the internal combustion engine and everything else we've been doing that forces carbon into the atmosphere has thrown the climate out of whack with possibly terminal and catastrophic results.' And they'd say, 'You've already got this thing you call AIDS. Let's not --'
"And I'd say, ' But wait! Islamic terrorists from the Middle East have hijacked airplanes and flown them into the World Trade Center.' Not only would they not go for it, they probably would have called security."
Publisher's Weekly is reporting that Madeline L'Engle has died.
[link]
t sniffle
Oddly, Wikipedia has her death date listed as 8/31/07, with no citation, and AP/NYT doesn't list anything.
I loved many of her books. If you haven't read the 2004 New Yorker profile of her and you love her books, don't ever read it. Unless you can successfully detach knowing about the writer from enjoying the writing (I can't.)
Okay, now I need to know, flea. Dish. Whitefont if necessary.
Oh!
I just went in to cry to the SO. Madeline L'engle had a huge influence on my life. She significantly altered some of my inherited views and challenged me to think through some others. I am more tolerant today because of her.
When I was a little girl, I used to rush to the library to get her newest book. It was my first experience with reading the works of a living, breathing, creating author.
The mother of one of my friends is a great author herself, and was in a writing group with her. I always intended to write Madeline a thank-you letter and send it through her, but I never did. I regret that.
Madeline L'engle had a huge influence on my life. She significantly altered some of my inherited views and challenged me to think through some others.
Oh, me too! She's one of my top 5 favorite authors.
Man. That breaks my heart.
Nothing terribly shocking or specifically horrifying, ita. Just
didn't come across as a nice person, a person who respected her family's privacy, especially. Her children hated her books, and felt she lied in her memoirs. Her son died at 45 or so of alcoholism and she never admitted it. That sort of thing.
I was kind of devastated.
Thanks, flea. Huh. That's very...real. Mundane. You expect both more and less from people who make it into or near the private eye.
I saw her speak at my college. She was tall and sort of like a creaky old dragon. She talked a lot about her faith which surprised me.
But like several others here, her books had a big impact on me.
