A Swiftly Tilting Planet was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1978 and won the National Book Award. On Thanksgiving evening, a South American dictator named Mad Dog Branzillo threatens nuclear war. Charles Wallace — now fifteen — is told by Meg (pregnant with her first child) that he must prevent the war.
Charles Wallace travels through time “within” people — inhabiting their bodies and consciousness at crucial historical moments — guided by Gaudior, a unicorn who can travel the wind. Each “When” he visits shows an ancestor of Branzillo at a turning point: a Welsh prince sailing to America in pre-Columbian times, a Native American boy, a colonial settler, a Civil War-era youth. By understanding how choices ripple through generations, Charles Wallace can shift the pattern that produced Branzillo’s madness.
L’Engle’s structure is intricate: Charles Wallace experiences each historical life fully while Meg, in the present, “kythes” (telepathically connects) with him to maintain his anchor in his own time. The novel’s theology centers on free will and predestination — each historical person has genuine choice, but patterns repeat unless someone intervenes with love and understanding.
Collecting A Swiftly Tilting Planet
First edition (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1978): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $100–$250
- Very good in jacket: $40–$100