The Arm of the Starfish was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1965. Adam Eddington (later a character in A Ring of Endless Light) is a sixteen-year-old marine biology prodigy offered a summer position assisting Dr. Calvin O’Keefe (Meg Murry’s husband, now a renowned scientist) on the island of Gaea, off the coast of Portugal. O’Keefe’s research involves starfish regeneration — specifically, inducing limb regrowth in higher organisms.
Before Adam even reaches the island, he is approached by competing factions: one claims O’Keefe is secretly weaponizing regeneration research; the other warns that enemies of science are trying to steal it. Adam must determine whom to trust — a problem L’Engle uses to explore how young people learn to distinguish genuine from false authority.
The novel bridges L’Engle’s Murry/O’Keefe series (fantasy/science fiction) with her Austin family series (realistic fiction), sharing characters between the two and establishing the adult lives of Meg and Calvin. It is the most conventional thriller in L’Engle’s output — a genuine spy novel — but retains her characteristic interest in the ethics of scientific knowledge.
Collecting The Arm of the Starfish
First edition (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1965): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $80–$200
- Very good in jacket: $30–$80