MADELEINE L ENGLE

Birth Date : 29/11/1918
Death Date : 06/09/2007

LENGLE WROTE HER FIRST STORY AT AGE FIVE AND BEGAN KEEPING A JOURNAL AT AGE EIGHT. THESE EARLY LITERARY ATTEMPTS DID NOT TRANSLATE INTO ACADEMIC SUCCESS AT THE NEW YORK CITY PRIVATE SCHOOL WHERE SHE WAS ENROLLED. LENGLE DETERMINED TO GIVE UP WRITING ON HER 40TH BIRTHDAY (NOVEMBER 1958) WHEN SHE RECEIVED YET ANOTHER REJECTION NOTICE. "WITH ALL THE HOURS I SPENT WRITING, I WAS STILL NOT PULLING MY OWN WEIGHT FINANCIALLY." SOON SHE DISCOVERED BOTH THAT SHE COULD NOT GIVE IT UP AND THAT SHE HAD CONTINUED TO WORK ON FICTION SUBCONSCIOUSLY. THE FAMILY RETURNED TO NEW YORK CITY IN 1959 SO THAT HUGH COULD RESUME HIS ACTING CAREER. THE MOVE WAS IMMEDIATELY PRECEDED BY A TEN-WEEK CROSS-COUNTRY CAMPING TRIP, DURING WHICH LENGLE FIRST HAD THE IDEA FOR HER MOST FAMOUS NOVEL, A WRINKLE IN TIME, WHICH SHE COMPLETED BY 1960. IT WAS REJECTED MORE THAN THIRTY TIMES BEFORE SHE HANDED IT TO JOHN C. FARRAR; IT WAS FINALLY PUBLISHED BY FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX IN 1962.