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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 1, 1991

CONTACT:

Mary Ann Hill
(781) 283-2373
mhill@wellesley.edu

WELLESLEY COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT, 1991

 

Author Madeleine L'Engle will speak at Wellesley College's 113th commencement exercises on Friday, May 31. Ceremonies will begin at 10:30 a.m. and will be located in the Academic Quadrangle outside of Green Hall.

The author of over 28 books, including A Swiftly Tilting Planet (1978 winner of the American Book Award), L'Engle draws inspiration for her novels by reading the great physicists and mathematicians. An amalgam of science fiction, fantasy, and autobiography, her works tend to defy traditional age categorizations. Before her first book, The Small Rain, was published in 1945, her manuscripts were routinely rejected by publishers unable to envision a genre that would appeal to both young and adult readers. "They said they didn't know who they were for," she explained. "They asked whether they were for children or adults -- and I said they were for people."

Born in 1918, L'Engle grew up in Switzerland, South Carolina, New York City, and Massachusetts. She graduated cum laude from Smith College in 1941 and then returned to New York to embark on a career as actress and playwright. After her marriage to fellow actor, Hugh Franklin, the couple moved to western Connecticut and opened a general store upon which her 1960 novel, Meet the Austins, was based.

It was during the decade spent in rural Connecticut that L'Engle first began reading Einstein and used the theory of relativity as inspiration for her most well known book, A Wrinkle in Time (1962). In 1978, Farrar, Straus & Giroux published A Swiftly Tilting Planet, which, together with A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door, comprises the much praised fantasy, The Time Trilogy (1979).

When asked how she expects her juvenile audience to fathom such advanced concepts as quantum physics or cellular biology (A Wind in the Door), L'Engle explains, "Adults always assume that these things are much too difficult for children to understand, but children don't know that science is supposed to be difficult, so -- they don't have any problems understanding it."

In response to increased student interest in her writings, the Wellesley College Book Store has arranged for L'Engle to sign copies of her books on Thursday, May 30 from 4:30 to 6 p.m. The book store is located in the Pendleton Building, across from the Academic Quadrangle.

Madeleine L'Engle is speaking at Wellesley College's commencement exercises at the invitation of the senior class.

 

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