The author of over fifty books, including Newbery Award winner A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle is internationally acclaimed for her literary skills and her ability to translate intangible things of the spirit-- both human and divine--into tangible concepts through story. In Madeleine L'Engle Herself: Reflections on a Writing Life, you'll find hundreds of this celebrated author's most insightful, illuminating, and transforming statements about writing, creativity, and truth. INCLUDES NEVER-BEFORE-PUBLISHED MATERIAL FROM L'ENGLE'S WORKSHOPS AND SPEECHES. "Madeleine L'Engle is one of the wise women not only of our time but of the ages. She would be comfortable in the company of Sappho and Sophocles, Dante and Chaucer, MacDonald and Dostoevsky, and they would rejoice in hers. She understands, as they did, that, confronted by the mysteries at the heart of the cosmos--the mysteries of union and separation, of progress and retreat, of good and evil--one must enlist in the struggle with all one's might and at the same time bow in awe before the unspeakable beauty and pain and all that is inexplicable." --Thomas Cahill, author of How the Irish Saved Civilization, The Gifts of the Jews, and Desire of the Everlasting Hills "Although it would be impossible to distill into one volume all of Madeleine L'Engle's wisdom about writing, this book comes close to doing just that. The selections address the whole writing life and capture those memorable expressions that are truly Madeleine. An inspiring and helpful resource--suitable for any writer at any stage of development." --Vinita Hampton Wright, author of Grace at Bender Springs and Velma Still Cooks in Leeway "This is a work that could only have come from Madeleine L'Engle. She is one of the few writers who has married the life of faith and the life of art together so beautifully. There are not many literary heroes among us, and if ever there was one, it is her. Within L'Engle's reflections on the mystery and the craft of writing there is more than enough wisdom to help those of us who read it to become far better writers than we might have been otherwise. Sometimes when you read a great writer when they write about the art of craft itself, you want to retire immediately and become a plumber. This book made me want to pick up my pen and go back to work, and to work harder than I ever have before. That is no small gift." --Robert Benson, author of Between the Dreaming and the Coming True and Living Prayer Madeleine L'Engle was the author of more than forty-five books for all ages, among them the beloved A Wrinkle in Time, awarded the Newbery Medal; A Ring of Endless Light, a Newbery Honor Book; A Swiftly Tilting Planet, winner of the American Book Award; and the Austin family series of which Troubling a Star is the fifth book. L'Engle was named the 1998 recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards award, honoring her lifetime contribution in writing for teens. Ms. L'Engle was born in 1918 in New York City. She wrote her first book, The Small Rain, while touring with Eva Le Gallienne in Uncle Harry . She met Hugh Franklin, to whom she was married until his death in 1986, while they were rehearsing The Cherry Orchard, and they were married on tour during a run of The Joyous Season, starring Ethel Barrymore. Ms. L'Engle retired from the stage after her marriage, and the Franklins moved to northwest Connecticut and opened a general store. After a decade in Connecticut, the family returned to New York. After splitting her time between New York City and Connecticut and acting as the librarian and writer-in-residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Madeleine L’Engle died on September 7, 2007 at the age of 88. Giving Birth I’ve experienced the pain and the joy of the birth of babies and the birth of books, and there’s nothing like it. When a child who’s been conceived in love is born to a man and wife, I think the joy of that birth sings throughout the universe. The joy of writing or of composing is much the same thing. I think all our lives are a process of births, of continuous births. And each of these births does involve pain. An Incarnational Event Obedience is an unpopular word nowadays, but the artist must be obedient to the work, whether it be a symphony, a painting, or a story for a small child. I believe that each work of art, whether it is a work of great genius, or something very small, comes to the artist and says, “Here I am. Enflesh me. Give birth to me.” And the artist either says, “My soul doth magnify the Lord,” and willingly becomes the bearer of the work, or refuses; but the obedient response is not necessarily a conscious one, and not everyone has the humble, courageous obedience of Mary. True Art All art, good, bad, indifferent, reflects its culture. Great art transcends its culture and touches on that which is eternal. Two writers may write the same story about the same man and woman and their relationship