A Wrinkle in Time was just a small part of Madeleine L’Engle’s vast oeuvre. Born in 1918, she published her first novel, The Small Rain, in 1945, an adult novel that focuses on a 10-year-old girl and her struggles with family and boarding schools. L’Engle’s early career focused more adult novels than young adult works until Wrinkle hit the shelves in 1962 and became an unrivaled success, somewhat a surprise for the modest author. Carrying on with The Small Rain tradition of filling her stories with families, relationships and religion, L’Engle continued to write a handful of adult fiction works, including A Severed Wasp in 1982 that extended the story she started in her first novel and wove in characters from her other works. Her books were largely well received, no matter the intended audience. “You have to write the book that wants to be written,” she once said. “And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”
J.K. Rowling and 6 Other Children’s Authors Who ‘Graduated’ to Adult Books
J.K. Rowling's new novel, 'The Casual Vacancy', hits shelves tomorrow. How will the author's foray into adult lit stack up against these other beloved children's authors?