Time Quartet - Publishing History

Publishing History

The series originated with A Wrinkle in Time, written in 1959 to 1960 and turned down by many publishers before Farrar, Straus & Giroux finally decided to publish it in 1962. A Wrinkle in Time won the Newbery Medal and has sold over 6 million copies. The sequel, A Wind in the Door, takes place the following year but was published over a decade later, in 1973. A Swiftly Tilting Planet, set ten years after A Wrinkle in Time, followed in 1978. The last of the quartet, Many Waters, was published in 1986, but takes place several years before A Swiftly Tilting Planet. This is readily apparent from the fact that Sandy and Dennys Murry are in high school as of Many Waters, but refer to their college studies at the time of A Swiftly Tilting Planet; and from Meg's unmarried status as of Many Waters.

All four titles have been published in numerous editions over the years, with occasional changes in cover art and, in 1997, a new introduction by L'Engle for the Dell Laurel-Leaf paperbacks. The books have also been packaged as a boxed set, first (before the publication of Many Waters) as the Time Trilogy, next as the Time Quartet.

Since 1989, the Time Quartet series plus An Acceptable Time (which takes place a full generation after A Wrinkle in Time) have been collectively called the "Time Quintet".

In May, 2007, the books were reissued under the Square Fish imprint in both mass market and trade paperback form. Both editions include new cover art, "An Appreciation by Anna Quindlen", a "Questions for the Author" interview, and the text of Madeleine L'Engle's Newbery Medal acceptance speech, published under the title "The Expanding Universe".