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.")

they have pre-prepared obituaries for just about all prominent people of a certain age.

And for people of all ages of a certain prominence. (If Dubya got run over by a bus tomorrow, there would be obituaries up within a few hours.)

I saw Madeleine L'Engle speak when I was probably 12 or 13, and what I chiefly recall is that someone in the audience stood up and used a fold of skirt to explain what she did understand about tesseracts, as a way of asking about all the parts she didn't understand. I remember thinking it was a brilliant question, and being very annoyed that it did not get an answer that in any way answered the question.

The NY Times has a whole obituary department and hundreds of obits that they keep updated. Some of the best writing in the NY Times has been in the obits.

I have read almost all of her books. I love the way that almost all her fiction has some kind of link to the other books. Suzi Austin shows up in A Severed Wasp, for example. From what I've read, her son felt being the model for Charles Wallace and Rob Austin hard to live up to. I don't ask that memoirs be literally true. I think they're frequently true to the experience of the author, which may not coincide with reality.

She talked a lot about her faith which surprised me.

Hmm, I though her Christianity was pretty well intertwined in the books she wrote. Knowing nothing of her but her books, it would have surprised me if she *hadn't* talked of her faith a lot. On a scale of "Christian fiction" I'd have rated her books as a higher ratio of Christian/fiction than Narnia, but lower than Perelandia.