Here’s a bummer note on which to start the weekend: SF Signal is repeating the news that author Madeleine L’Engle, best known for the classic children’s story A Wrinkle in Time and its various sequels, died last night at her home in Connecticut. She was 89, so she had a good, long life at least. And of course her books will no doubt remain in print for a long, long time to come, a form of immortality that everyone who puts words to paper dreams of achieving.

I blogged some time ago about revisiting Wrinkle when I had to write an essay on a favorite childhood book for a job interview; you can read that essay, as well, if you’ve a mind to.

You never realize how much some of those long-forgotten things from childhood really mean to you until something forcibly reminds you. A couple years ago, it was a job interview that got me thinking about Wrinkle and its sequel, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, which I also loved (I never got around to reading the other twothree books in the Time QuartetQuintet, as I understand it’s called). Today, it’s the passing of the lady who created them.

Update: There’s a detailed obit up now at The New York Times, and Scalzi has pretty much summed it up with this observation:

…what a great writer she was. Her books remain; in fact, they are on my daughter’s bookshelf right now, waiting for her. I envy her that she gets to read them for the first time.

I don’t have any children, but I understand that sentiment very well…

Update Two: Hm, it seems there are actually five books in the “time” series: A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time. Man, am I out of touch with my children’s and young adult literature!