Yet no matter how difficult a theme L'Engle writes of, or what personal or universal crisis her characters face, there is an underlying joy in her books, a feeling that her characters will eventually make the best choices.
L'Engle's life has paralleled her books in many ways. She was born in New York City in 1918. Her father, Charles Wadsworth Camp, was a foreign correspondent. Her mother, Madeleine Barnett Camp, was a southern gentlewoman who had studied music extensively and was talented enough to have been a concert pianist had she so desired. The southern background and love of classical music exerted a strong influence on L'Engle's writing. Several of her works portray the staunch tradition of southern gentility and characters imbued with its ideals. Throughout her works, L'Engle's characters exhibit a great fondness for classical music--for example, Mrs. Austin vacuuming to it, Katherine Forrester studying it, and Adam Eddington whistling it as a code. In her science fiction works, L'Engle's extraterrestrial beings often speak in voices compared to musical instruments: English horn, woodwind, harp.
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