L'Engle received a A.B. degree in 1941 from Smith College and later studied at Columbia University. She acted in the theater in the 1940s and taught at private grade schools in New York. L'Engle's ‘A Wrinkle in Time' and many of her other books pit good against evil while interweaving elements of fantasy and philosophy. These included two sequels to ‘A Wrinkle in Time'—‘A Wind in the Door' (1973) and ‘A Swiftly Tilting Planet' (1978)—and ‘Camilla Dickinson' (1951), ‘The Moon By Night' (1963), ‘The Young Unicorns' (1968), ‘Dragons in the Waters' (1976), and ‘A Ring of Endless Light' (1980). In addition to her novels L'Engle wrote poems, articles, and stories for several magazines. Among her volumes of poetry were ‘Lines Scribbled on an Envelope' (1969), and ‘The Weather of the Heart' (1978). She also published a series of autobiographical works based on her journals, including ‘The Summer of the Great-Grandmother' (1974) and ‘The Irrational Season' (1977). In 1980 L'Engle won the American Book Award for ‘A Swiftly Tilting Planet', and in 1981 ‘A Ring of Endless Light' was named a Newbery honor book. L'Engle had a following of loyal readers who were drawn by her imaginative and wide-ranging tales that were filled with symbols and elaborate plot twists.