RIP, E. L. Konigsburg.

We've been meaning to write about children's author E. L. Konigsburg's death for a week now, but we're disorganized. Sorry, Ms. Konigsburg, no disrespect was meant—we will always love you and your glorious 1968 novel From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which opens with a paragraph that spoke to the very souls of thousands of nerdy, finicky children (myself included):

"Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away. That is, running away in the heat of anger with a knapsack on her back. She didn't like discomfort; even picnics were untidy and inconvenient: all those insects and the sun melting the icing on the cupcakes. Therefore, she decided that her leaving home would be running to somewhere. To a large place, a comfortable place, an indoor place, and preferably a beautiful place. And that's why she decided on the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Immortal words. (Personally, I would have insisted that the place come with private, clean, extra-hot showers as well, but I totally embraced the sentiment.) Ms. Konigsburg died on Friday, April 19th, at age 83. She had suffered a stroke a week earlier. Our sympathies go out to her family, and our gratitude and admiration to her.