Three new pages have been discovered from an earlier draft of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time (Macmillan/Square Fish; OverDrive Sample).

The pages feature Meg, Calvin, and Mr. Murry at the point Meg has just escaped from Camazotz. Meg asks her father how the Black Thing captured Camazotz and Mr. Murry launches into a lecture on freedom, totalitarianism, and the dangers of security.

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, L’Engle experts agree with her decision to cut the pages pre-publication and they will not be included in any new editions.

The found pages are just an example of the many edits L’Engle had to make to find a publisher. In 1960 she wrote in her journal about the demands of one publisher who rejected the book and suggested its length be reduced by 50%:

Today I am crawling around in the depths of gloom … I’m willing to rewrite, to rewrite extensively, to cut as much as necessary; but I am not willing to mutilate, to destroy the essence of the book.

As we reported earlier, a film version by Disney is in the works, with Jennifer Lee (Frozen) set to direct.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2015 at 12:06 pm and is filed under Childrens and YA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.