Madeleine L'Engle RIP

Publicity photo from Random House

Madeleine L'Engle was one of my favorite authors as a child. I discovered her as a first grader and voraciously devoured every one of her books on the library shelves through my high school years and beyond. She has been one of the major influences on my sense of what literature is and of the power of story to do more than just entertain but to teach life lessons, to heal, to instill wonder, to elevate the soul.

She died this week at age 88. She had published over sixty books.