Letters of C. S. Lewis

by C. S. Lewis

  121 The Letters of Sir Walter Raleigh (1879–1922), ed. Lady Raleigh, with a Preface by D. N. Smith, 2 vols (1926).

  122 William Francis Ross Hardie (1902–1990) read Classics at Balliol College and was a Fellow of Magdalen 1925–26, a Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at Corpus Christi College 1926–50 and President of Corpus Christi 1950–69.

  123 John Alexander Smith (1863–1939), who was also a Classicist, was a Fellow of Balliol from 1891 until he became Waynflete Professor of Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy 1910–36 and a Fellow of Magdalen.

  124 Thomas Dewar Weldon (1896–1958) had served in the RAF during 1915–18. He took a B.A. from Magdalen in 1921 and he was a Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at Magdalen from 1923–58.

  125 The Mermaid Club was founded on 19 June 1902 ‘to promote the reading and study of the Elizabethan and post-Elizabethan drama’.

  126 Percival Merritt, The True Story of the So-Called Love Letters of Mrs Piozzi (1927), p. 70.

  127 The friends who met Jack in Oxford for a walk on the Berkshire Downs were Owen Barfield and Cecil Harwood. They were joined at Goring by Walter Ogilvie ‘Wof’ Field (1893–1957) who came up to Trinity College, Oxford, from Marlborough College in 1912. He left to join the Warwickshire Rifle Regiment in 1914, and in 1916, having continued his studies, he took a war degree from Trinity College. He was promoted to Captain in 1916 and after seeing action in France and Italy he was wounded and forced to retire in 1919. In 1926 he became a teacher at the Rudolf Steiner School in Forest Row, Sussex.

  128 ‘Soak’ was coined by Jack to mean sitting idle or sleepily doing nothing. By a ‘soaking machine’ he meant a place for these operations.

  129 William Douglas Robson-Scott (1900–80) matriculated at Univ. in 1919, and in 1923 he took a First in English Literature. He became the Professor of German Language and Literature at Birkbeck College, University of London.

  130 The Poetical Works of Armstrong, Dyer and Green, with Memoirs and Critical Dissertations by the Rev. George Gilfillan (1858), pp. 15, 16.

  131 Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, I, ii, 139–40.

  132 Mr Barfield was probably referring to the review of Hermann Gunkel’s What Remains of the Old Testament and Other Essays in The Times Literary Supplement (26 April 1928), p. 302.

  133 On 17 November Magdalen College elected George Stuart Gordon its President.

  134 The dates in this letter are confused. As Jack informed Warren by cable, Mr Lewis died on Wednesday 25 September. He was born on 22 August 1863 and, so, was a little over 66 years old.

  135 James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) after Dr Johnson’s death in 1784.

  136 Mrs Moore wrote to Warren on 27 October 1929 saying, ‘I hope you will spend your leaves with us or wherever we are. We hope some day to get a larger house, when things would be more comfortable for you, so please do think of our home as your home, and be assured always of a very hearty welcome.’

  137 Albert Lewis was the youngest of four sons. His brother Joseph had died in 1908. The other two, William and Richard, had moved to Scotland in 1883 and entered into a partnership selling rope and felt. Their business was located in Glasgow, but they lived some fifteen miles away at Helensburgh.

  138 Coventry Patmore (1823–96).

  139 Henry Victor Dyson (‘Hugo’) Dyson (1896–1975) was an undergraduate at Exeter College and took his B.A. in 1921. He was a Lecturer and Tutor in English Literature at the University of Reading 1921–45, and a Fellow and Tutor of Merton College 1945–63. For more about this charming member of ‘The Inklings’ see Surprised by Joy and Humphrey Carpenter’s The Inklings (1978).

  140 John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973) is as famous as he deserves to be. However, it may not be amiss to mention that when he and Jack met in 1926 he was already the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford. He ‘changed chairs’ to become the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature in 1945. See Surprised by Joy and Humphrey Carpenter’s J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography (1977).

  141 Kenneth Bruce McFarlane (1903–66) took his B.A. from Exeter College in 1925 and was Tutor in Modern History at Magdalen College 1927–66.

  142 Alan Richard Griffiths (now Dom Bede Griffiths, O.S.B.) was born in 1906 and read English under Jack at Magdalen. In Surprised by Joy (ch. XV) Jack speaks of him as his ‘chief companion’ on the road to Christianity. Dom Bede has told his own story of their friendship in The Golden String (1954).

  143 The Rev. Adam Fox (1883–1977) took his B.A. from University College in 1906 and was ordained a priest in 1911. He was Dean of Divinity at Magdalen College 1929–42, Professor of Poetry 1938–43, and a Canon of Westminster 1942–63.

  John Traill Christie (1899–1980) was a Fellow and Classical Tutor of Magdalen 1928–32, Headmaster of Repton School 1932–37, Headmaster of Westminster School 1937–49, and Principal of Jesus College, Oxford, 1950–67.

  144 Frederick Chesney Horwood (1904–) matriculated at St Catherine’s College in 1922 and took his B.A. in 1925. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English at St Catherine’s College 1930–70.

  145 The Rev. Wilfrid Savage Thomas (1879–1959) was the Vicar of the Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, Headington Quarry, which is about half a mile from The Kilns. Father Thomas took a B.A. from Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1900. Following his ordination in 1903 he held a number of livings in England and Australia. He was the Vicar of Headington Quarry 1924–35.

  146 The Rev. Edward Foord-Kelcey (1859–1934) took a B.A. from Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1887 and was ordained in 1888. His last living was as Rector of Kimble 1906–26, after which he retired to a house in Northfield Road, Headington. He came to know Jack and the Moores when they were living in 28 Warneford Road. There is a delightful portrait of him by Jack in the Lewis Papers, vol. XI, pp. 24–25 which ends ‘He was the worst preacher I ever sat under: and one of the most lovable—though by no means the least irritating—men I have ever known.’

  147 Edward Hope (1866–1953) took a Sc.D. from Manchester and in 1919 he was elected Fellow and Tutor in Natural Science at Magdalen and Lecturer in Chemistry.

  148 He is referring to his essay ‘Donne and Love Poetry in the Seventeenth Century’ which appeared in Seventeenth Century Studies Presented to Sir Herbert Grierson (1938).

  149 He means the debate going on between himself and Dr E. M. W. Tillyard of Jesus College, Cambridge. It began with Jack’s essay ‘The Personal Heresy in Criticism’ in Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association, Vol. XIX (1934). This was answered by Dr Tillyard’s ‘The Personal Heresy in Criticism: A Rejoinder’ in Vol. XX of Essays and Studies (1935), to which Jack wrote a response entitled an ‘Open Letter to Dr Tillyard’, Vol. XXI of Essays and Studies (1936). These essays, with two more from Dr Tillyard and one from Jack, were published as The Personal Heresy: A Controversy (1939).

  150 Out of the Silent Planet, the first of Jack’s three interplanetary novels, was published in the Autumn of 1938.

  151 One of Jack’s pupils at this time, John Lawlor, saw the debate with Dr E. M. W. Tillyard. In his essay ‘The Tutor and the Scholar’, in Light on C. S. Lewis, ed. Jocelyn Gibb (1965), Professor Lawlor wrote: ‘[Lewis] was the dialectician all his life; and one must only add that he was superb .�.�. There was a memorable occasion when in the Hall at Magdalen Dr Tillyard met him to round off in debate the controversy begun with the publication of Lewis’s indictment of “the Personal Heresy”. I am afraid there was no debate. Lewis made rings round Tillyard; in, out, up, down, around, back again—like some piratical Plymouth bark against a high-built galleon of Spain.’

  152 Charles Williams’s Judgement at Chelmsford (1939).

  153 Owen Barfield’s Orpheus was performed on the stage in 1948. It was published as Orpheus: A Poetic Drama, ed. John C. Ulreich, by The Lindisfarne Press in 1983.

  154 The Rev. Thomas Eric Bleiben (1903–47) succeeded Father Thomas as the Vicar of Headington Quarry. While Father Thomas had been exactly right for t
he Anglo-Catholic church in this parish, Jack found Father Bleiben, Vicar 1935–47, too much of a modernist.

  155 Charles Walter Stansby Williams (1886–1945), an employee of the Oxford University Press since 1908, had published a number of what Jack called ‘theological thrillers’ before they met in 1936. Upon his arrival in Oxford he was quickly absorbed into ‘The Inklings’. Jack paid tribute to his friend in his Preface to Essays Presented to Charles Williams, ed. C. S. Lewis (1947). The best biography of Williams is probably Alice Mary Hadfield’s Charles Williams: An Exploration of His Life and Works (1983).

  156 Charles Wrenn (1895–1969) was educated at Queen’s College, Oxford. After lecturing in a number of universities he returned to Oxford in 1930 as University Lecturer in Anglo-Saxon. In 1939 he was elected to a professorship at King’s College, London. In 1946 he once again returned to Oxford, this time to succeed J. R. R. Tolkien as Professor of Anglo-Saxon.

  157 Gerard Walter Sturgis Hopkins (1892–1961), a translator and critic, served the Oxford University Press 1920–57, first as Publicity Manager and later as Editorial Adviser. He and Charles Williams had rooms in 9 South Parks Road, Oxford.

  158 Maurice Rey Ridley (1890–1969), who had been an undergraduate at Balliol College, was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Balliol 1920–45. From there he went on to become a Lecturer at Bedford College in London 1948–67.

  159 Robert Emlyn Havard (1901–85) read Chemistry at Keble College before he studied medicine and became a doctor. He had a surgery in St Giles, a few steps from ‘The Eagle and Child’ pub, and another in Headington. He became the doctor to Jack and the other occupants of The Kilns in about 1934, and in 1940 he became one of ‘The Inklings’. Jack gave him the nickname ‘Humphrey’, and ‘Humphrey’ he was to The Inklings and other friends for the rest of his life.

  160 The Continuity of English Prose (1932).

  161 Jack arranged for Charles Williams to give a series of lectures during Hilary Term on ‘Milton’. They were delivered on Mondays at 11 A.M., the first one (referred to above) occuring on 29 January in the Divinity School of the Bodleian Library. His second lecture on 5 February, which Jack wrote to Warren about on 11 February, was on Comus.

  162 All of Sister Penelope’s books were published during these years as by ‘A Religious of C.S.M.V.’. The book she had sent to Jack was Windows on Jerusalem (1941)

  163 Perelandra is dedicated ‘To some Ladies at Wantage’—the Community of St Mary the Virgin.

  164 Since he began talking over the BBC Jack had been getting an enormous number of letters from listeners. The two series, ‘Right and Wrong’ and ‘What Christians Believe’, were published in July 1942 under the title Broadcast Talks. This led to even more letters about those talks. Jack was here answering a question Sister Penelope asked about ch. 11 of Broadcast Talks in which he said ‘It may be a great advance in knowledge not to believe in witches: there’s no moral advance in not executing them when you don’t think they are there!’

  165 He is referring to the essay entitled ‘The Last Judgement’ in J. B. S. Haldane’s Possible Worlds and Other Essays, the Phoenix Library edition (1930).

  166 Miss Sayers was impressed by the Oxford University Socratic Club, of which Jack was President, and she hoped to start one in London.

  167 Owen Barfield’s essay ‘Poetic Diction and Legal Fiction’ in Essays Presented to Charles Williams, ed. C. S. Lewis (1947).

  168 The dinner jacket fitted to perfection Professor Tolkien’s son, Christopher.

  169 Lord David Cecil (1902–86) was educated at Eton and Christ Church. He was a Fellow and Lecturer in Modern History at Wadham College 1924–30, and a Fellow of New College from 1939 until he was elected Goldsmith’s Professor of English at Oxford in 1948. Lord David was also a member of The Inklings.

  170 John Wain is one of Jack’s pupils who became a member of The Inklings. He is such a good writer that the most pleasant way of learning more about him and his connection with The Inklings is through his Sprightly Running: Part of an Autobiography (1962).

  171 Dr Firor practised medicine in Baltimore but had a ranch in Cody, Wyoming. He knew that Jack needed a rest but was unlikely to like American cities, and he invited him to the ranch.

  172 In 1944 Professor Tolkien and Jack began talking about writing a book together on Language. By 1948 it got as far as the title ‘Language and Human Nature’ and was advertised by the S.P.C.K. as due in 1949. It was never written.

  173 Jack and Warren were in southern Ireland for a holiday 14–28 August, after which Jack spent a fortnight with Arthur Greeves at Crawfordsburn, Co. Down.

  174 This appeared in Arthurian Torso; Containing the Posthumous Fragment of ‘The Figure of Arthur’ by Charles Williams and A Commentary on the Arthurian Poems of Charles Williams by C. S. Lewis (1948).

  175 This appeared in Arthurian Torso; Containing the Posthumous Fragment of ‘The Figure of Arthur’ by Charles Williams and A Commentary on the Arthurian Poems of Charles Williams by C. S. Lewis (1948).

  176 English Literature in the Sixteenth Century.

  177 II Kings II.23.

  178 Mark VII.24–30.

  179 De Descriptione Temporum (1955).

  180 ‘Let us pray for each other.’

  181 Frank Edward Brightman (1856–1932) had been dead some years before Christopher Derrick read English under Jack at Magdalen. Brightman had taken his degree in 1879 and become a priest in 1885. After serving as a Librarian of Pusey House 1884–1903, he was a Fellow of Magdalen College 1902–32.

  182 After what seemed a very long gestation to Jack, Professor Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings had been published in three volumes during 1954–55.

  183 This is the book which eventually became The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature (1964).

  184 David and Douglas Gresham were already in school at Dane Court in Pryford, Surrey, when Roger Lancelyn Green’s eldest son, Scirard, arrived there.

  185 He is talking about a passage in Ch. IV of his Reflections on the Psalms which was published in September 1958.

  186 Jack’s essay ‘Willing Slaves of the Welfare State’ appeared in The Observer (29 July 1958) p. 6. Accompanying it was a photograph of Jack and Joy by Michael Peto. Speaking of this ghastly photograph, Jack told me he thought it made him look ‘at least 120 years old’.

  187 ‘Not I, but the Lord’ (v. 10); ‘I speak, not the Lord’ (v. 12).

  188 Miss Lynda Greer.

  189 A kitchen porter in Magdalene.

  190 Dr Fowler, who was the Fellow of English at Brasenose College, Oxford, at this time, has edited Jack’s lecture-notes on The Faerie Queene under the title Spenser’s Images of Life (1967).

  191 His English Literature in the Sixteenth Century had become one of the critical works, along with those of Edward Dowden and Churton Collins, from which some of Dr Fowler’s pupils were plagiarising.

  192 He means he couldn’t have had a digression on State interference in The Four Loves (1960).

  193 Francis McD. C. Turner was a Fellow of Magdalene at the time.

  194 R. W. M. Dias, also a Fellow of Magdalene, was a University Lecturer in Law.

  195 ‘to compare small things with great’.

  196 Father Gervase Mathew (1905–76), who was educated at Balliol College, joined the order of Dominicans in 1928 and was ordained in 1934. Most of his life was spent at Blackfriars in Oxford where he lectured for the Modern History, Theology and English Faculties. He was a member of The Inklings and such a lovable man that it is impossible to believe that anyone could have ever disliked him.

  197 ‘In His will is our peace.’