Sarah Arthur - A light so lovely: the spiritual legacy of Madeleine LEngle, author of A Wrinkle in Time

CONTENTS

M any thanks to Stephanie Smith and the team at Zondervan, not only for brainstorming this book with me but giving me the chance to write it.

To my college roommate, Chloe Couch Richards, for first introducing me to the grown-up works of Madeleine LEngle and thus understanding me better than I understood myself.

Lisa Ann Cockrel for her enthusiasm, insights, and suggestions.

Charlotte Jones Voiklis for keeping Madeleines legacy alive for a new generation. Having you as a consultant and cheerleader for this project was pure grace.

All my interview subjects, who allowed me to fumble my way through the art of gleaning pertinent information without overly managing the conversation.

Erin Wasinger, for her research assistance and interview savvy: this couldnt have happened without you. Tabitha Martin, who kept our house from disintegrating into a slovenly, unsanitary pit. My long-suffering family, including my parents and in-laws, who juggled childcare and other issues to make this book possible. What manuscript deadline would be complete without at least one child puking?

And finally, to my husband, Tom, whose love for Two-Part Invention is undimmed by my probe into LEngles idealization of her otherwise less-than-easy marriage. Thank you for your unfailing love and support, especially in the making of this book.

You are lovely lights, all of you.

ZONDERVAN

A Light So Lovely

Copyright 2018 by Sarah Arthur

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

Epub Edition June 2018 9780310353423

ISBN 978-0-310-35340-9 (softcover)

ISBN 978-0-310-35343-0 (audio)

ISBN 978-0-310-35342-3 (ebook)

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.Zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version. Public domain.

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Cover design: Jeff Miller | Faceout Studio

Cover photo: madeleinelengle.com

Interior design: Kait Lamphere

First printing June 2018 / Printed in the United States of America

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Please note that footnotes in this ebook may contain hyperlinks to external websites as part of bibliographic citations. These hyperlinks have not been activated by the publisher, who cannot verify the accuracy of these links beyond the date of publication.

I have never yet fully served a book.

But it is my present joy to try.

Madeleine LEngle

For my young sons,

Micah and Sam.

May you tesser well.

Madeleine was a true bridge builder; and if ever weve needed some, now is the time.

Philip Yancey, author, Vanishing Grace: Bringing Good News to a Deeply Divided World

Many thanks to Sarah for capturing the beauty and complexity of Madeleine LEngle who influenced millions of readers around the world to always light candles in the darkness.

Catherine Hand, film producer, A Wrinkle in Time

Science and religion. Faith and fiction. The gift of both/and is the Madeleine LEngle legacy I, and many a Christian creative, has benefitted from most, and Sarah Arthurs A Light So Lovely takes a deep dive into the fullest meaning of LEngles beautifully complex perspective, displayed in all of her work, but most famously in A Wrinkle in Time. Through Arthurs insight, we see that LEngles thinking makes room for the kind of wonder readers will want to hold on to.

Why do we humans insist on codifying who and what God is, and who He is in us? In A Light So Lovely, Arthur explores the ways in which Madeleine LEngle repeatedly pushed against this tendency and, in doing so, created stories that revealed a God without limits, one who we could trust implicitly at any age, and share openly without apology.

Nikki Grimes,New York Times YA and childrens bestselling author

Ive waited a long time for a book about Madeleine LEngles spiritual legacy and A Light So Lovely was entirely worth the wait. In this book, Sarah Arthur explores LEngles wide and generous spirituality with her bestselling books, her lectures, her public work, but wisely also with her relationships and her devoted readers (myself among them!) remembrances, all while placing her within the larger narrative of her time and place. A Light So Lovely beautifully and honestly illuminates one of the most important and creative writers of our time.

Sarah Bessey, author, Out of Sorts and Jesus Feminist

A compelling portrait of an author whose commitment to challenging our labels and categories, to bridging the imagined divide between sacred and secular, is as relevant today as ever.

Sara Zarr, YA author

What fun, and what a delight it is to gain these fresh and careful insights into the life of Madeleine LEngle, literary icon and dear friend whose imagination and storytelling has become the stuff of legend! Through the narratives of the friends and family who knew and loved her, Sarah Arthur has used her vivid gifts of words and insights to bring Madeleine to life. Read, enjoy, and be enlarged by these stories.

Luci Shaw, author, Thumbprint in the Clay

This book has a secret. Its a magic wordone so small you might overlook it. The word? And. Its everywhere in this book, marking how Madeleine LEngle reconciled what we have divided. Like LEngles vision, Arthurs book is for believers and unbelievers. Readers and writers. Fans of science fiction and romance. People of faith and people of scienceand those who love both of those languages. Girls, boys, women, menthose in their forties and twenties, and who are also still five, capable of wide-eyed, childlike faith. This intimate introduction is so full of wisdom, it will rejuvenate newcomers to LEngles work and her most faithful fans. Im grateful for Arthurs homage to a personal hero: Its a joy to read and a reminder to live with wild imagination.

Jeffrey Overstreet, author, Auralias Colors and Through a Screen Darkly

An eminently readable, deeply lyrical, and thoroughly necessary examination of a literary luminary in the context of her faith. Arthur helps illuminate not just LEngles own writings but the wider promise of the Anglican tradition.

Tara Isabella Burton

In A Light So Lovely, Sarah Arthur gives us the heart of Madeline LEngles legacy, that the Christian life (like Christs life) is subversive and beautiful, and that hope is sometimes deceptively ordinary. We need this reminder now more than ever.