Madeleine L’Engle’s First Words

Posted by Melissa Howard Sep 10, 2007

Paul Mandelbaum edited a book called First Words. It contains early writings from 22 noteworthy contemporary authors. Madeleine was one of the authors included in this fascinating ‘expose.’ Four poems written by a very young Madeleine are included along with a short story that she wrote at age fourteen. The story is titled ‘Six Good People.’ In it, Madeleine gives the account of six people who enter heaven at the same time. Here is the sketch of one characters:

“Young David Mallinson stood dreamily, occasionally running his long slender hands with the spatulate fingertips through his wild brown hair, or playing a fragment of a great composition as though he sensed shining ivory keys under them...As he stepped through the gates a great clapping arose, and he found himself in a great auditorium facing a vast audience, and bowing, once, twice, thrice...The audience sat spell-bound, no one moved. David was inspired with tremendous genius, and the music was so wonderful it filled him with awe. “It is heavenly,” he thought.”

Mandelbaum observes that the search for wholeness as portrayed in Six Good People is the same one found in A Wrinkle In Time. I would argue that search for wholeness is a theme that runs through all of Madeleine’s books. Madeleine writes in her book Walking on Water that “The important thing is to recognize that our gift, no matter what the size, is indeed something given us, for which we can take no credit, but which we may humbly serve, and, in serving, learn more wholeness, be offered wondrous newness.”