Remembering Madeleine

Sep11

John Podhoretz: “. . . she had about her an almost supernatural grace, suitable to someone who was a very serious churchgoing Episcopalian and the author of several novels for adults about the difficulties and joys of faith.”

Dan Wilt: “We will miss you, Madeleine. May the doors of heaven open to you more gloriously than any of the pictures you painted with words. You’ve been an artful Healer and Tender Of Souls, a Raiser Of Imaginations and Blender Of Worlds. Thank you for giving us your very best.”

Ann Bartholomew: “When I look back on my childhood reading, it’s her books I see stacked on my shelf within easy reach. I read and read and re-read the stories of Meg and Charles Wallace Murry (and, of course, Calvin O’Keefe) more times than I can recall.”

Magistramater: “When something reminds me of Madeleine, I call it L’English. It’s one of the most delightful words in my personal lexicon.”

Sundial Girl: “I come back to the novels at least once a year to pay homage to the woman who opened my eyes to the magic outside the boundaries of this world, who taught me that science and fantasy can exist in one world. She taught me the meaning of words, of names, of the act of naming.”

LD Wheeler: “I appreciated her as a woman of deep (specifically, Christian) faith who acknowledged deep doubts; who saw something almost sacramental in the little things and tasks of life, like cooking a meal or making music.”

Laurel Snyder, Slate: “Nothing was enough for L’Engle. As an author, she danced with demanding philosophical questions and toyed with quantum physics. She wrote about faith with devotion, dabbled in ethics, psychology, myth, art, politics and nature. And she blended everything into stories that describe the crushing complexity of a child’s life in this century.”

Darla D. at Books and Other Thoughts: “As I child I loved to lose myself in stories about the Austin family because it was the kind of family I longed to have, and those books were a safe but stimulating place to think and learn about life.”

BooksforKidsBlog: “Like C. S. Lewis before her, L’Engle brought a hard-headed Christian mysticism to the task of writing for children. She was not afraid to draw upon religious and mythical symbols to tell her stories . . . ”

Jeffrey Overstreet: “On Thursday night, at the age of 88, Madeleine L’Engle made her journey through a wrinkle in time and space. And I feel that I lost a grandmother and a mentor.”

Thom at The Culture Beat: “Her words of wisdom will continue to impact future generations of artists, and no one articulated the relationship between faith and art better than she.”

Left Coast Mama: “Of all the books I own, my Madeline L’Engle Collection is very tired looking and dog-eared. I have lost count of how many times I have re-read all of them.”

Melissa Hart: “Spirituality informs all of L’Engle’s books, but I suspect that she, like her characters, had a horror of the word “pious.” To the people who frequented her books, religion meant something other than showing up at church once a week. It meant living a life infused with gratitude.”

Leigh: “One of the books that most changed my life is Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. (It also, apparently, did so for Sawyer in LOST. Woo!)”

D.W. Congdon: “My favorite works by L’Engle are her books of nonfiction, particularly Penguins and Golden Calves, The Rock That Is Higher: Story as Truth, and Walking on Water: Personal Reflections. These books reward multiple readings. L’Engle’s wisdom and spiritual insight is on full display in these works, as she discusses art, literature, faith, Scripture, worship, and love in ways that are both deeply moving and profoundly theological.”

LivingSmall: “It’s been years since I’ve looked at any of these books, but I remember them vividly as a series that glowed like a beacon, gave me hope that perhaps it was actually possible to live a good life, to raise kids, write, build a marriage, and find some sort of faith that wasn’t blind, but was a faith that required all of one’s intellect.”

Gina at AmoXcalli has more links to media coverage, obituaries, and blogger reaction.

And this discussion of L’Engle’s life and work at Phantom Scribbler isn’t a remembrance; it was posted a year and a half ago. Nevertheless, it’s a good meeting of Madeleine L’Engle fans and readers. I think you’ll enjoy the discussion if you read through the comments.

Patriot Day

Sep11

September 11, 2001, was a defining moment in American history. On that terrible day, our Nation saw the face of evil as 19 men barbarously attacked us and wantonly murdered people of many races, nationalities, and creeds. On Patriot Day, we remember the innocent victims, and we pay tribute to the valiant firefighters, police officers, emergency personnel, and ordinary citizens who risked their lives so others might live.

After the attacks on 9/11, America resolved that we would go on the offense against our enemies, and we would not distinguish between the terrorists and those who harbor and support them. All Americans honor the selfless men and women of our Armed Forces, the dedicated members of our public safety, law enforcement, and intelligence communities, and the thousands of others who work hard each day to protect our country, secure our liberty, and prevent future attacks.

The spirit of our people is the source of America’s strength, and 6 years ago, Americans came to the aid of neighbors in need. On Patriot Day, we pray for those who died and for their families. We volunteer to help others and demonstrate the continuing compassion of our citizens. On this solemn occasion, we rededicate ourselves to laying the foundation of peace with confidence in our mission and our free way of life.

By a joint resolution approved December 18, 2001 (Public Law 107-89), the Congress has designated September 11 of each year as “Patriot Day.”

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim September 11, 2007, as Patriot Day. I call upon the Governors of the United States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as well as appropriate officials of all units of government, to direct that the flag be flown at half-staff on Patriot Day. I also call upon the people of the United States to observe Patriot Day with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and remembrance services, to display the flag at half-staff from their homes on that day, and to observe a moment of silence beginning at 8:46 a.m. eastern daylight time to honor the innocent Americans and people from around the world who lost their lives as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-second.

GEORGE W. BUSH

Speaking of Apples

Sep10

Anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of apples in a seed.
Robert H. Schuller

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.
Martin Luther

The sweeter the apple, the blacker the core. Scratch a lover and find a foe!
Dorothy Parker

Let the public mind become corrupt, and all efforts to secure property, liberty, or life by the force of laws written on paper will be as vain as putting up a sign in an apple orchard to exclude canker worms.
Horace Mann

Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.
Bernard Baruch

One mustn’t ask apple trees for oranges, France for sun, women for love, life for happiness.
Gustave Flaubert

It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.
Henry David Thoreau

Picking Apples

Picking Apples by Arthur John Elsley

Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness.
Jane Austen

My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, “Good fences make good neighbors.”
Robert Frost

What a healthy out-of-door appetite it takes to relish the apple of life, the apple of the world, then!
Henry David Thoreau

Surely the apple is the noblest of fruits. Let the most beautiful or the swiftest have it. That should be the “going” price of apples.
Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau wrote an entire essay entitled “Wild Apples,” extolling the virtues of wild apples found by the roadside in early nineteenth century New England. But when he speaks of wandering among the wild apple trees, even in his time, he says he speaks “rather from memory than from any recent experience, such ravages have been made!”

No wild apples for me down here in Semi-Tropical Texas! Ah, well, it’s wandering among the grocery store aisles for me.

Review of A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle

Sep10

A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle, is a sequel to A Wrinkle in Time. As in A Wrinkle in Time, it is another story of Meg Murry and her family. The story starts as Meg begins to notice that her younger brother, Charles Wallace, has become very weak. Every step he takes costs him much strength. Her mother, as Meg finds out, fears that this might mean there is something wrong with his farandolae and mitochondria. Meg goes even further than her mother, however, to save Charles Wallace’s life.
This book was riveting and exciting, just as a Wrinkle in Time was. Some parts of the book had you scared, disturbed, and made you squirm until you finally found out all the answers.
A Wind in the Door is, I think, more serious than A Wrinkle in Time, and more difficult to follow along with. Some things are still mysteries by the end of the book, where you would expect to find out everything. When you read the book, you get the feeling of not knowing why something is happening, but knowing that it has to happen. You can’t possibly see how the characters will make the right choice, or do the right thing, but you know they will. It’s the sort of book that you must be relieved when you remind yourself that everything has to turn out alright in the end, but then you can’t even be sure everything will turn out all right.
I enjoyed this book because, while it answered a few questions, it still left some unanswered, giving you something to look forward to when you finish it and move on to A Swiftly Tilting Planet. And, also, while the book is fiction, it is science fiction and did teach me a bit. I must admit, however, I liked it more for the “fiction” part of it and less for the “science” part. But overall, it was a great book.

Apple Aphorisms

Sep9

She’s the apple of his eye.

One bad apple spoils the whole barrel.

She really knows how to polish the apple.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Don’t upset the apple-cart.

Adam ate the apple, and our teeth still ache.

It’s as American as apple pie.

Motherhood and apple pie.

You can’t compare apples and oranges.

When the apple is ripe, it will fall.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Any more suggestions?

A Madeleine L’Engle Annotated Bibliography

Sep9

l'engle books
1. 18 Washington Square South: A Comedy in One Act, 1944. Ms. L’Engle actually wrote several plays and was an actress herself before her marriage, but this is one of the few that appears in the bibliography at her website.
2. The Small Rain, 1945. Madeleine L’Engle’s first published novel tells the story of young Katherine Forrester, daughter of two famous musicians, who discovers in herself her own musical talent. This one is a beautifully realized coming-of-age novel set in Europe and New York City in the years before World War II. Semicolon review here.
3. Ilsa, 1946. Has anyone read this? Is it a novel or a play?
4. And Both Were Young, 1949, is another boarding school story starring artist Philippa Hunter who is miserable until she meets Paul and learns from him how to confront the past and overcome her self-doubt. I read this book a few months ago as a part of my Madeleine L’Engle project, but I never got around to writing about it here on the blog, maybe because I didn’t like it as much as I do her other books.
5. Camilla Dickinson, 1951. Republished in 1965 as simply Camilla, probably reworked to some extent. Semicolon review here.
6. A Winter’s Love, 1957. Semicolon review here.
7. Meet the Austins, 1960. The first in the Austin family series of books.
8. A Wrinkle in Time, 1962. Madeleine L’Engle’s most famous book, winner of the Newbery Award in 1963, is deserving of the praise it gets. Meg Murry, her brother Charles Wallace the genius, and her friend Calvin “tesser” through space and time to rescue Meg’s father from IT.
9. The Moon By Night, 1963. The Austin family goes on a cross-country camping trip, and Vicky, age 15, meets some interesting characters, including Zachary, a poor little rich boy who is alternately fascinating and alarming. This one moves into Young Adult territory with romance, but nothing salacious.
10. The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas, 1964. Christmas with the Austins.
11. The Arm of the Starfish, 1965. Polyhymnia (Polly) O’Keefe is the daughter of Meg (Murry) and Calvin O’Keefe from A Wrinkle in TIme. She becomes involved, along with a young student, Adam Eddington, in a complicated episode of scientific espionage.
12. Camilla, 1965. Semicolon review here.  
13. The Love Letters, 1966. The story of a woman who is running away from a difficult marriage. She runs to Portugal, of all places, where she learns about love and responsibility and commitment from a 17th century Portuguese nun who broke her vows for the sake of a handsome French soldier. My favorite Madeleine L’Engle novel. (Adult) Semicolon review here.
14. A Journey With Jonah (a play), 1967.
15. The Young Unicorns, 1968. The Austin family is living in New York City; however, the story focuses on a couple of new friends of the Austins, pianist Emily Gregory and former gang member Dave Davidson. It’s a very sixties YA novel, featuring street gangs, lasers, and mad scientists.
16. Dance in the Desert, 1969.
17. Lines Scribbled on an Envelope and Other Poems, 1969
18. The Other Side of the Sun, 1971. The setting is early twentieth century South Carolina. English bride Stella Renier must come to live with her new husband’s famiy while he goes travelling on business. Sort of Gothic in good way with spiritual/Christian themes. (Young adult or adult)
19. A Circle of Quiet, 1972. Autobiography about Ms. L’Engle’s life in a village, her familly and her early writing life.
20. The Wind in the Door, 1973. The second of the Time Quartet books. Instead of travelling through time and space, Meg must travel inside Charles Wallace to diagnose and cure a problem with Charles Wallace’s mitochondria. Semicolon review here.
21. Everyday Prayers, 1974
22. Prayers for Sunday, 1974
23. The Risk of Birth, 1974
24. The Summer of the Great Grandmother, 1974. Nonfiction counterpart to the fictional A Ring of Endless Light, the two books deal with the task of dying with dignity and role of families in the process of death and dying.
25. Dragons in the Waters, 1976. Murder, smuggling, and blackmail in Venezuela. This YA novel features Polly O’Keefe.
26. The Irrational Season, 1977. A follow-up to Circle of Quiet and Summer of the Great-Grandmother.
27. A Swiftly Tilting Planet, 1978. The third book in the so-called TIme Quartet, this novel is one part science fiction, one part historical fiction, and another part just plain weird —in a wonderful sort of way.
28. The Weather of the Heart, 1978
29. Ladder of Angels, 1979
30. The Anti-Muffins, 1980. A short book about the Austins and nonconformism.
31. A Ring of Endless Light, 1980. Vicky Austin and her family must come to terms with the impending death of Vicky’s garndfather, and Vicky must decide who she is and whom she can trust.
32. Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, 1980. These essays on the intersection of faith and art are quite helpful and thought-provoking for Christian artists in particular. JR at brokenstainedglass has been blogging about the insights he has gleaned from this book for last couple of months (August-September, 2007).
33. A Severed Wasp, 1982. Katherine Forrester from A Small Rain returns as an elderly retired concert pianist who becomes entangled in the life of the characters who ive in and around the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.
34. And It Was Good: Reflections on Beginnings, 1983.
35. A House Like a Lotus, 1984. Polly O’Keefe, nearly seventeen years old in this novel, travels to Cyprus and learns both discernment and acceptance in her relationships.
36. Trailing Clouds of Glory: Spiritual Values in Children’s Literature, 1985 (with Avery Brooke). Another excellent book about the art of writing particularly for Christian writers.
37. Many Waters, 1986. A fictionalization of the Biblical story of Noah and the ark, with time travel, unicorns, and nephilim thrown in. The main characters are Meg Murry’s twin brothers, Sandy and Dennys.
38. A Stone for a Pillow: Journeys with Jacob, 1986
39. A Cry Like a Bell, 1987
40. Two-Part Invention, 1988. The story of Madeleine’s marriage to actor Hugh Franklin.
41. An Acceptable Time, 1989. Polly O’Keefe returns in her fourth story, and the plot and themes hark back to those of Time Quartet: time travel, peoples and cultures of the past, healing, the power of love.
42. Sold Into Egypt: Joseph’s Journey into Human Being, 1989.
43. The Glorious Impossible, 1990.
44. Certain Women, 1992 is an adult novel about the Biblical King David and about a modern-day David, an actor who engages in serial polygamy in about the same way that David of the Bible loved many women and had many wives. Semicolon review here.
45. The Rock That is Higher, 1993
46. Anytime Prayers, 1994
47. Troubling a Star, 1994. Vicky Austin and Adam Eddington are in Antarctica where they resist those who are trying to exploit the continent’s natural resources. YA.
48. Glimpses of Grace, 1996 (with Carole Chase)
49. A Live Coal in the Sea, 1996. This adult novel returns to the character Camilla from the book of the same name and tells the story of her famiy, especially her son Taxi and granddaughter Raffi.
50. Penguins and Golden Calves: Icons and Idols, 1996
51. Wintersong, 1996 (with Luci Shaw). Poetry.
52. Bright Evening Star, 1997
53. Friends for the Journey, 1997 (with Luci Shaw). Reviewed here by Carol of Magistramater.
54. Mothers and Daughters, 1997 (with Maria Rooney). Maria Rooney is Madeleine L’Engle’s daughter.
55. Miracle on 10th Street, 1998
56. A Full House, 1999. A Christmas story about the Austin family and an unexpected Christmas baby.
57. Mothers and Sons, 1999 (with Maria Rooney)
58. Prayerbook for Spiritual Friends, 1999 (with Luci Shaw)
59. The Other Dog, 2001
60. Madeleine L’Engle Herself: Reflections on a Writing Life, 2001 (with Carole Chase)
61. The Ordering of Love: The New and Collected Poems of Madeleine L’Engle, 2005.

Poetry and Fine Art Friday: Underneath an Apple Tree

Sep7

Apple Tree by Z-baby

Apple Blossoms by Will Carleton

Underneath an apple-tree
Sat a maiden and her lover;
And the thoughts within her he
Yearned, in silence, to discover.
Round them danced the sunbeams bright,
Green the grass-lawn stretched before them
While the apple blossoms white
Hung in rich profusion o’er them.

Naught within her eyes he read.
That would tell her mind unto him;
Though their light, he after said,
Quivered swiftly through and through him;
Till at last his heart burst free
From the prayer with which ’twas laden,
And he said, “When wilt thou be,
Mine forevermore, fair maiden?”

“When,” said she, “the breeze of May
With white flakes our heads shall cover,
I will be thy brideling gay—
Thou shalt be my husband-lover.”
“How,” said he, in sorrow bowed,
“Can I hope such hopeful weather?
Breeze of May and Winter’s cloud
Do not often fly together.”

Quickly as the words he said
From the west a wind came sighing,
And on each uncovered head
Sent the apple-blossoms flying;
“Flakes of white! Thou’rt mine,” said he,
“Sooner than thy wish or knowing.”
“Nay, I heard the breeze,” quoth she,
“When in yonder forest blowing.”

Will Carleton was a popular poet in the latter half of the nineteenth century. He was known as the first poet laureate of Michigan, and in 1919, according to WIkipedia, the Michigan legislature passed a law that said that Michigan teachers had to teach at least one of Mr. Carleton’s poems in school. (Do they still teach the poetry of Will Carleton in Michigan?)

The artwork, which doesn’t exactly mirror the poem, is nevertheless a product of that fine artist, Z-Baby, whose painting should be, and probably will be, world renowned. She’s the Artist Laureate of the Semicolon Household.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born September 6th

Sep6

Marquis de Lafayette, b. 1757. French general and aristocrat whose full name was Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert de Motier, Lafayette. He came to the U.S. colonies in 1777 at the age of 19 and immediately demanded a commission as an officer in the Continental Army. However, he did agree to serve without pay as a volunteer. He became a close friend and protege of George Washington and asked Washington to be godfather to his son, Georges Washington du Motier. He returned to France after the American Revolution and was hailed as “The Hero of Two Worlds,” but he had to flee France during the French Revolution even though he believed in a constitutional monarchy and renounced his title of “marquis.” He returned to France under Napoleon’s rule. Congress granted Lafayette honarary U.S. citizenship on August 6, 2002.

Jane Addams, b. 1860. Founder of Hull House, a settlement house in Chicago, and author of the autobiographical Twenty Years at Hull House. I don’t have a copy of Miss Addams’ Twenty Years, but I do have a book that I picked up at a used book sale called The Mother’s Book, published in 1919, that contains writing by Jane Addams and other authors of her same ilk and persuasion. The book is a mixture of excellent advice on child training and hopelesssly idealistic or condescending nonsense. For example, from an article by William Byron Forbush, Why Home Is Better Than Kindergarten:

There are some distinct advantages in the home-school for small children.
The mother excells the teacher in both knowledge and interest. She may not be familliar with child-study and she does not talk scientifically about the child, but she knows and loves “her” child.
Home life is real, while kindergarten can necessarily only imitate real life.

The author goes on to advocate homeschooling as the best way to educate children up to at least age seven.

On the other hand, another author in the same book tells mothers:

Baby’s training must be begun from the first day. He should not be rocked to sleep, trotted, or walked the floor with, nor allowed to suck his thumb or pacifer. All of these habits will soon have to be broken, so why begin them?
In modern maternity hospitals a crying baby is placed in the center of a large, soft, and comfortable bed and left alone to cry itself to sleep. Very distressing to the mother and the neighbors; but the little one soon finds its true level, will give up the habit of crying, and not wait for the bottle or the bribe of a lump of sugar.

Who knew that the Ezzos studied early twentieth century social work manuals for their parenting advice?

Felix Salten (Siegmund Salzmann), b. 1869. He was born in Budapest, Hungary, but his family moved to Vienna, Austria when he was only a baby. He started writing because he worked in an insurance office, and he was bored. His most famous book was, of course, Bambi: A Life in the Woods, published in Austria in 1923. It was published in the U.S. in 1928, translated into English by none other than Whittaker Chambers, twenty years before the Alger Hiss affair made him (in)famous. The Nazis banned Bambi in 1936, and when the Germans implemented their Anchluss with Austria, Salten fled to Switzerland. (Felix Salten was Jewish.) The German novelist Thomas Mann showed Salten’s book Bambi to Walt Disney, and the movie of the same name came five years later in 1942, during World War II.

Apple Book of the Day

Sep5

Apples of Your Eye (Rookie Read-About Science) by Allan Fowler.

We started out our apple month with this little book from the library. There’s not much to it: a little discussion of how tasty apples are, a few pictures of apple growing and of grafting an apple tree, some information on the most common varieties of apples. Nevertheless, the book got us “in the mood” for apples, and this afternoon I bought this bowl full of apples at the grocery store. (Yes, that’s a peach that insinuated itself into the apple bowl. How did that happen?)

apple book 1