Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage (The Crosswicks Journals Book 3)

Madeleine L'Engle offers an intimate memoir of her forty-year marriage to actor Hugh Franklin. She explores how a long-term marriage evolves beyond initial attraction toward compatibility, friendship, and companionship, describing a relationship marked by compassion, respect, growth, challenge, and conflict. L'Engle begins with accounts of her and Franklin's different childhoods, then traces how two young artists came to New York City in the 1940s to pursue theater careers. They met while working on a production of Anton Chekov's The Cherry Orchard, beginning a connection that lasted until Franklin's death in 1986. She recounts raising their children at Crosswicks, a Connecticut farmhouse, and describes the mutual support she and her husband provided each other as artists seeking professional and personal fulfillment. The memoir presents both the heartfelt and heartbreaking dimensions of their marriage, exploring intertwined lives shaped by love and loss. This ebook includes an illustrated biography of Madeleine L'Engle with rare images from the author's estate.