The March/April 85th anniversary issue of Weird Tales features our big list of “The 85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years.” We’re breaking it down online, too: one honoree per day, in no particular order, for 85 days!

Sure, Lovecraft and Doc Smith showed off their superperceptible four-dimensional beings first. An obvious enough concept, really, for anyone who’d read Flatland with a creative eye. But MADELEINE L’ENGLE (1918–2007) portrayed an angel as that sort of alien monstrosity in a children’s book, made it into a Christ figure, and had it fight off unspeakable cosmic horror all at the same time. Bravissimi, maestra! She introduced generations of preteens to the weird rehybridization of science fiction, horror, and myth — and tended lovingly to their souls along the way.