A Circle of Quiet was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1972, the first volume of what became the Crosswicks Journals (named for the family’s farmhouse in Goshen, Connecticut). L’Engle writes about the decade of the 1950s when, after early success, her books were rejected by every publisher — a ten-year drought during which she raised three children, ran a general store with her husband (the actor Hugh Franklin), and questioned whether she was a writer at all.
The “circle of quiet” is a clearing in the woods behind the farmhouse where L’Engle goes to think. The book is a meditation on creativity, faith, failure, and the daily life of a working mother who also happens to be an artist. L’Engle is honest about the practical difficulties: writing with children underfoot, supporting a household, managing the ego-damage of repeated rejection.
The journal form allows L’Engle to range freely across theology, science, literature, child-rearing, and personal history without the constraints of a single argument. It established a model — the writer’s spiritual autobiography — that many subsequent authors (Anne Lamott, Kathleen Norris) would follow.
Collecting A Circle of Quiet
First edition (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1972): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $30–$80
- Signed: $60–$150