A few years ago, one of Madeleine L'Engle's granddaughters made a momentous discovery in the room long used by the American author to write such classics as A Wrinkle in Time: a trove of early short stories. Many are autobiographical, spanning her career from her lonely childhood in New York through her college years, her life as a young mother in small-town Connecticut, and her first literary successes. Some of the standouts among these 18 tales are "The Mountains Shall Stand Forever," "Prelude to the First Night Alone," "Poor Little Saturday," and "Gilberte Must Play Bach."