New York Cathedral to be Named Literary Landmark to Honor Madeleine L'Engle

November 12, 2012

For Immediate Release 

New York Cathedral to be Named Literary Landmark

to Honor Madeleine L'Engle 

The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine will be dedicated a Literary Landmark on Thursday, November 29th to recognize the church's connection with the legendary children's author, Madeleine L'Engle. The author of the children's literary classic, A Wrinkle in Time (FSG, 1962), served as the church's librarian for more than 40 years. The event, which is open to the public, is scheduled for 4 p.m. in the Cathedral, followed by Evensong and a reception. During the dedication, Leonard S. Marcus, children's literature historian and author of Listening for Madeleine: A Portrait of Madeleine L'Engle in Many Voices (FSG, 2012), will speak about L'Engle and her connection to the Cathedral.

The Empire State Center for the Book, The Children's Book Council, and Farrar Straus Giroux, an imprint of Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, are the sponsors of the landmark for L'Engle, who was an author of many works of fiction and nonfiction. "It is very appropriate that we dedicate this landmark on November 29th because it would have been L'Engle's 94th birthday," said Rocco Staino, director of the Empire State Center for the Book.

The sponsors proposed this year for the memorial because it marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of A Wrinkle in Time, for which L'Engle received the prestigious Newbery Medal. In 2011, the author was inducted posthumously into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame, a project of the Empire State Center for the Book.

The Literary Landmarks is a program of United for Libraries (formerly Friends of Libraries USA). Other landmarks in New York City include the Algonquin Hotel, The Little Red Lighthouse and Pete's Tavern.