The Door in the Wall

Marguerite de Angeli (née Lofft) was born in 1889 in Lapeer, Michigan and grew up in West Philadelphia. Her father was a photographer and illustrator. As a teenager, de Angeli worked as a musician, singing professionally in a Presbyterian choir. She married her husband, John Dailey de Angeli, a violinist, in 1910, and the couple had six children together. The young de Angeli family moved frequently, living throughout the U.S. and Canada before settling in the Philadelphia suburbs. De Angeli took up illustration in the 1920s; her early work was published in magazines, including Ladies’ Home Journal and The American Girl. She went on to illustrate children’s literature, including works by Newbery Honor-winners Elsie Singmaster and Cornelia Meigs. De Angeli began writing her own books in the 1930s, with her first book Ted and Nina Go to the Grocery Store published in 1935. In addition to her illustration work, she would go on to write (and illustrate) over 20 works of children’s literature, as well as two works of nonfiction for adult audiences. De Angeli’s writing and illustrations are mostly set in and around her native Philadelphia. Her books tend to focus on the struggles of everyday people, from coal miners to victims of racial prejudice to people with disabilities, and she has received or been nominated for numerous awards over the course of her career. She won the 1950 Newbery Medal for The Door in the Wall, as well as a 1957 Newbery Honor for the children’s historical novel Black Fox of Lorne.

The Door in the Wall is set in England during the Middle Ages. The novel doesn’t explicitly name a year in which Robin’s story takes place, but its reference to a plague outbreak in the opening chapters situate the action around the time of the second plague pandemic, a series of plague oubtreaks that ravaged Europe from 1346 to 1353. The second plague pandemic began with the Black Death, the most extreme outbreak of the second pandemic, which claimed an estimated total of 50 million lives worldwide. In England, the estimated number of casualties ranges from 3 to 7 million. The disease originated in bacteria carried by fleas, which transmitted the illness to humans via contact with rats. Modern research suggests that the outbreak’s high fatality rate was due its being a new strain of the disease, which left the immune system with minimal protection against the illness. Accounts vary, but some historical records indicate that the plague arrived via ship in the coastal town of Weymouth, England around June of 1348, and from there it quickly spread out of control. The disease reached London by autumn of that year. Treatment of symptoms varied. Many European Christians saw the plague as a punishment from God, given symptoms’ resemblance to various plagues described in the Bible. As such, some physicians instructed patients to pray or undergo confession so that God might end their suffering.

Marguerite de Angeli has published over 20 works of children’s literature, including numerous works of historical fiction like The Door in the Wall. One such work is Black Fox of Lorne (1956), which follows two young Viking twins on a journey to avenge their father’s death. Other notable works of children’s literature that take place in the middle ages include Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman, which takes place in the late 13th century and is told from the perspective of a young girl via her diary entries. The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DeCamillo also features a young protagonist who, after being nursed back to health by a monk, undertakes a dangerous and challenging journey. DeCamillo’s novel contains magical elements, blending genres of historical fiction and fantasy. One central part of The Wall in the Door’s plot is Robin’s struggles to come to come to terms with the disability that results from his illness. The book (and de Angeli’s work as a whole) shows a character learning to embrace difference, with help from a compassionate and supportive community. Another work of historical fiction written for young readers is Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes. Set in Boston in the leadup to the American Revolution, the book follows a young apprentice named Johnny who is forced to find new purpose in life after a devastating injury to his hand thwarts his future as a silversmith.