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.

I remember reading the first three books of the Time Quintet, as they seem to be called now (I didn't even know there were two other books) when I was in elementary school, probably. I liked A Wrinkle in Time but remember almost nothing about it now, but I recall being very confused by the other two books, which seemed to be for an older audience. I don't think I understood how Meg could be pregnant, or what that really meant.

Madeleine L'Engle was a huge influence on my beliefs/ideas, too, and I sort wish I hadn't read the white font. I still read Wrinkle in TIme regularly, and it is just so beautiful and meaningful and real to me that it always brings tears to my eyes, not just from the sad parts, but pretty much from the beginning. And I love Meg.

New York Times now has an (obviously long-prepared) obituary up: [link]

(obviously long-prepared)

I was just thinking about that, flea. I thought, "There's no way they could have put that thing together in one night. They...must have had that ready to go. That's...kind of weird."

That's...kind of weird.

They have 'em prepared for a whole host of famous, formerly famous, and moderately famous people. Kind of like how they always say it's easier to keep your resume updated than to have to haul it out for the first time in ages when you have to jobhunt. Only I guess L'Engle isn't jobhunting much.

I think they have pre-prepared obituaries for just about all prominent people of a certain age. It must be a weird assignment, researching an obituary for someone still alive.

She lived a long life and produced a good body of work, which is as much as anyone can hope for, I think. (I find that when someone 80 or older dies, I'll still feel sad but think, "At least s/he had a good run." Below 80 is "too young," and below 60 is "too damn young.")