Poetry Challenge #324: But for a Wrinkle . . .

“It was a dark and stormy night…”

Which author penned it first? Hint: the answer isn’t Snoopy.

Snoopy comic strips, each starting “It was a dark and stormy night”

It’s sort of a trick question actually for, according to dictionary.com writers have been beginning stories with that line as long as night has fallen, rain has stormed, and people have been making up stories.

(For the record, the earliest published record noted was “The English novelist, playwright, and politician Sir Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton used the line to open his 1830 book Paul Clifford.)

But most famously, Snoopy aside, “It was a dark and stormy night,” is line one of chapter one of A Wrinkle in Time written by our poet/writer of the week, Madeline L’Engle.

Madeleine L’Engle in large glasses at her desk, with bookshelves behind her

Madeleine was born on November 29th, 1918 in New York City to a pianist mother and mystery writer father. Of her childhood she once told a journalist she

“…Saw little of the stars and not enough of her parents,”

which left her endless time to read, make up stories and write.

“Little” became almost nothing when at 12, her parents moved to the French Alps and Madeline was sent to English Boarding School. (Maybe English Boarding School is the secret ingredient for writing success???) or not.

Madeline crossed the pond to do high school at Ashley Hall in South Carolina-wrote

Madeleine L’Engle as a girl, around 1926, reading at a table

Went to Smith-wrote

Moved to Greenwich Village-wrote-

Worked in theater-wrote

and published 2 novels-

Married Hugh Franklin-wrote

Hugh Franklin as Dr. Charles Tyler in All My Children

Hugh who?????

Who knew Madeline L’Engle was married to a soap opera star???

Madeline and Hugh had 3 kids-Madeline wrote- they bought a defunct general store in Connecticut. She wrote-became a librarian-wrote. . .

Madeleine L’Engle quote: “Poetry, at least the kind I write, is written out of immediate need; it is written out of pain, joy, and experience too great to be borne until it is ordered into words. And then it is written to be shared.”

A poem by Madeleine L’Engle beginning “It was a time like this”

A Wrinkle in Time didn’t fit publishers’ mold or lists.

Editors didn’t think it would sell.

It took more than 2 years—25-40 rejections by Madeline’s own count—before Farrar, Straus & Giroux published A Wrinkle in Time in 1962.

“If I’ve ever written a book that says what I believe about God and the universe, this is it,”—L ’Engle’s journal June 2nd 1960

A Wrinkle in Time went on to win the prestigious 1963 Newbery medal and has sold over 16 million copies in more than 30 languages, and counting. In 1980, L’Engle won the National Book Award for A Swiftly Tilting Planet, paperback edition, (#4 in her Time Quintet). What a wrinkle . . .

Poetry Challenge #324

But for a Wrinkle . . .

Let’s use L ‘Engle’s basic list of ingredients to conjure up a poem titled “It Was a Dark and Stormy Night.”

Storm
Stranger
Wind
Time
Wrinkle

Use any/all of the ingredients above, stir in some fantasy and Presto!

Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes

Start Writing!

Don’t Think About it, Write It!

Madeleine L’Engle quote: “You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”

Kelly Bennett and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you.

“It was a dark and stormy night…”

“…Saw little of the stars and not enough of her parents,”

which left her endless time to read, make up stories and write.

“Little” became almost nothing when at 12, her parents moved to the French Alps and Madeline was sent to English Boarding School. (Maybe English Boarding School is the secret ingredient for writing success???) or not.