C.S. Lewis at Poets’ Corner

by Michael Ward

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  xvi

  introduction

  accomplishments and his continuing influence on British

  national life.

  It has been my privilege to interview Dr. Michael Ward,

  lead organizer of this fast-approaching celebration.

  SMITH

  Dr. Ward, what is the significance of Poets’ Corner—especially

  from a British point of view?

  WARD

  Poets’ Corner is perhaps the most famous part of Westminster

  Abbey. Over one hundred poets, novelists, dramatists, and

  other artists (including actors and musicians) are buried or

  commemorated there. The first poet to be buried in the Ab-

  bey was Geoffrey Chaucer, the “father of English poetry,” in

  1400. Others who have been honoured include Shakespeare,

  Wordsworth, the Brontë sisters, and Jane Austen.

  To be memorialized in Poets’ Corner means you’ve re-

  ceived national recognition for your contribution to the arts.

  Westminster Abbey has been at the heart of religious and civic

  life in England for over a thousand years and is known as “the

  coronation church.” William the Conqueror was crowned

  there on Christmas Day 1066. Our present monarch, Queen

  Elizabeth II, was crowned there in 1953. So, for C. S. Lewis to

  be memorialized in the Abbey is an indication of the respect

  in which he is held and an acknowledgement of his enduring

  place in the world of English letters.

  SMITH

  Why is this particular event significant—globally and within

  the community of Lewis scholars and readers?

  WARD

  Globally, because Westminster Abbey is renowned world-

  wide and almost everything that happens there receives atten-

  tion internationally.

  It’s significant among the community of Lewis scholars

  and readers because so much of that community has, hitherto,

  been based in America, and now things are beginning to even

  themselves out. In comparison to Americans, the British have

  been rather slow to recognize Lewis’s importance. I don’t say

  that the British have completely ignored him till now; he has

  always been reasonably popular here, but less so than in the

  United States. Part of that is simply to do with differences in

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  xvii

  national temperament: the British (and, in particular, the Eng-

  lish) are reluctant to make an enthusiastic noise about their

  favourite authors because we fear being mocked for it. “Mod-

  eration in all things,” tends to be the English way! Partly it’s to do with a strain of Anglophilia in certain parts of American

  culture. And partly, perhaps, it could be to do with the fact that

  “a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country.”

  Another reason it’s significant within the community of

  Lewis scholars is because several attempts have been made

  over the years from within that group to have Lewis memo-

  rialized in the Abbey, and at last the Abbey has said yes. Dr.

  Stan Mattson of the C. S. Lewis Foundation had suggested it

  on previous occasions; I myself had tried back in 1998; I think

  various other people had tried too—and always the Dean of

  the Abbey, whose sole decision it is, had declined. But now the

  present Dean of the Abbey, Dr. John Hall, has graciously con-

  sented to the suggestion and it’s going ahead. So, I know that

  a lot of people within the community of Lewis scholars and

  readers will be pleased—delighted—and I think everyone who

  has petitioned the Abbey about this matter over the decades

  can consider themselves to have contributed to the present

  positive situation.

  SMITH

  In the official press release announcing this memorial, Vernon

  White, Canon Theologian at Westminster Abbey, said: “C. S.

  Lewis was an extraordinarily imaginative and rigorous thinker

  and writer, who was able to convey the Christian faith in a way

  that made it both credible and attractive to a wide range of

  people. He has had an enduring and growing influence in our

  national life.”

  There is a fairly widespread belief that Lewis was less well

  accepted by the British after World War II and was hailed as an

  evangelical hero in America. Neither side of this spectrum is

  really accurate. Obviously, the British people were deeply in-

  fluenced by Lewis through his broadcast talks and his “popu-

  lar” writings. And Americans went through a period after his

  death of declining interest in Lewis, which was later followed

  by a renewal of esteem that hasn’t waned. From your perspec-

  tive, what is Lewis’s enduring and growing influence on British

  national life?

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  introduction

  WARD

  The most easily recognisable influence, I think, has been

  through the popularity of The Chronicles of Narnia. Those

  books, and in particular the first, The Lion, the Witch and

  the Wardrobe, are very widely known in Britain. People have grown up knowing about Narnia and it’s now an established

  point of reference in the culture at large. Several times in recent years, I’ve been watching BBC comedy programmes and have

  observed various comedians making jokes—usually friendly

  sorts of jokes, I’m pleased to say—which assume knowledge

  of magic wardrobes or how time stands still when you’re in

  Narnia or the danger of eating Turkish Delight. And these

  comedians are right: everyone in Britain, pretty much, can

  be expected to know about these things. The Chronicles rep-

  resent that aspect of Lewis’s influence which is truly national

  and ubiquitous, and who can say exactly what that impact has

  been? All I can say is, from the reading I’ve done and from

  countless conversations I have with people over the years, that

  it’s immeasurable and very largely positive.

  The other aspects of his influence—his Christian apolo-

  getics (such as The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity) and his academic writings (such as The Allegory of Love and A Preface to Paradise Lost)—are more confined to particular groups within the nation. And there again, it’s impossible to

  quantify. But many, many people have been brought into a

  Christian faith, or strengthened within an existing faith, by his

  writings and by his personal example; and many scholars, both

  Christian and non-Christian, have been inspired by his aca-

  demic output. It’s really remarkable how much of an influence

  Lewis has had, in his imaginative writings, his apologetics, and

  his professional works of literary criticism. By any standards,

  it’s an outstanding achievement and an unparalleled range of

  influences.

  Then, of course, there’s an influence that is related to

  Lewis, but not directly part of his own life and work, I mean

  the Shadowlands story of his marriage and bereavement. This was first of all a BBC television film, then a West End stage-play, then a feature film starring Anthony Hopkins, and finally

  a BBC radio-play. The writer, William Nicholson, managed to

  get four iterations of the drama, which is quite extraordinary!
r />   A lot of people who may know very little about Lewis will

  have encountered Shadowlands, but of course the story has

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  xix

  been greatly simplified and dramatized and romanticized and

  actually bears only a fairly loose connection to reality. Still,

  it’s part of the overall picture of Lewis’s place in the British

  national consciousness, and worth bearing in mind. Lewis is

  widely thought of not just as a writer, but as a man who loved

  and lost, who suffered bereavement but still trusted in God.

  And although Shadowlands is very unreliable, it is at least right in those respects and has had a part to play in making

  Lewis known to certain people who might otherwise never

  have heard of him.

  SMITH

  How did the idea for this memorial come about?

  WARD

  The Abbey has an Institute for public education; it puts on

  lectures, debates, seminars, and other events of various kinds.

  One of the canons at the Abbey, Vernon White, thought that

  the fiftieth anniversary of Lewis’s death would be a good time

  for the Institute to organise some sort of event focusing on

  Lewis’s work as a Christian writer and apologist. Canon White

  got in touch with me to discuss ideas and, in consort with the

  Institute’s Director, Claire Foster-Gilbert, we decided to have

  a one-day Symposium, featuring two lectures from leading

  Lewis scholars, plus a Panel Discussion in which a group of

  invited experts would assess Lewis’s legacy for Christian apol-

  ogetics in the twenty-first century. The Institute was already

  planning a programme of events for autumn 2013 under the

  title “Telling the Truth,” and so we agreed to incorporate the

  Lewis Symposium within that larger undertaking.

  And while we were talking about the Symposium, I

  asked whether it might not be an opportune moment to revisit

  the notion of a Poets’ Corner memorial. Vernon indicated that

  the time could be ripe, and so I approached several friends

  and colleagues who agreed to be co-signatories to a letter

  that I wrote to the Dean, suggesting that very thing. The co-

  signatories were:

  i. Helen Cooper, Professor of Medieval and Renaissance

  English at the University of Cambridge. She holds the

  professorial chair that Lewis was the first occupant of;2

  2 Helen Cooper held Lewis’s old Chair from 2004–14.

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  introduction

  ii. The then President of the Oxford University Lewis Soci-

  ety, Ryan Pemberton;

  iii. Alister McGrath, author of C. S. Lewis, A Life, and Professor of Theology, Ministry and Education at King’s Col-

  lege, University of London;3

  iv. Michael Ramsden, Director of the Oxford Centre for

  Christian Apologetics;

  v. Dr. Judith Wolfe, Fellow of St. John’s College, Oxford, and

  editor of The Journal of Inklings Studies.4

  The Dean of the Abbey, Dr. John Hall, wrote back very

  positively and it was agreed that news of the memorial would

  be announced in November 2012, giving us a whole year to

  raise the money for it. The Abbey doesn’t fund such memorials

  itself, so it is up to me, as the main initiator of the project, to find the necessary support from Lewis’s readers and admirers

  round the world. Jason Lepojärvi, the current President of the

  Oxford Lewis Society, is helping oversee the finances.

  Even a relatively small memorial, such as this one, costs a

  huge amount of money because anything that affects the fabric

  of the Abbey has to be of high quality, both in materials and

  design. Also, the Abbey requires, quite properly, an additional

  sum as a contribution to the ongoing maintenance of memori-

  als. And finally, certain other incidental expenses also need to

  be met by supporters of the project (for instance, the cost of

  producing the Order of Service).

  The names of contributors will be compiled into a list

  and deposited in the Bodleian Library in the University of

  Oxford, among the papers of the Oxford Lewis Society, so that

  future generations of scholars can see who helped this memo-

  rial to be realized. We won’t mention the size of individuals’

  contributions, because we understand that people have all

  sorts of claims upon their giving and the amount you donate

  is not really the relevant thing. Any amount is very gratefully

  received, be it large, medium, or small. What we want is for

  3 Alister McGrath is now the Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford, Director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, and Fellow of Harris Manchester College.

  4 Judith Wolfe is now Lecturer in Theology and the Arts, School of Divinity, University of St Andrews.

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  xxi

  this list to demonstrate the extent of Lewis’s readership; and it

  will also provide an opportunity for people whose lives have

  been deeply impacted by Lewis’s work to put that on record in

  a permanent form in the library of the university where Lewis

  spent most of his career.

  SMITH

  Can you tell me anything about the design of the memorial,

  and how it will be worded?

  WARD

  It will be a flag-stone kind of memorial, embedded in the

  pavement of Poets’ Corner. The exact size and shape and lo-

  cation will be decided by the Abbey authorities, taking into

  account the existing memorials and the space available and

  so on. Ptolemy Dean, Surveyor of the Fabric at the Abbey, will

  have oversight of all the practical details relating to its design and manufacture.

  Regarding the wording: obviously Lewis’s name and

  dates are the main things. As for a possible inscription from

  his own writings: I took soundings among Lewis experts and

  among the co-signatories to the letter, and the most popular

  option was the closing sentence of one his most famous ad-

  dresses to the Oxford Socratic Club, the university debating

  society of which he was President for many years:

  I believe in Christianity

  as I believe that the Sun has risen,

  not only because I see it

  but because by it I see everything else.

  We put this suggestion to the Abbey and, after careful con-

  sideration by a committee that deals with these things, they

  approved the idea. It’s an eminently suitable quotation, memo-

  rable, meaningful, not overlong, and with a beautiful balance

  to it. I will have a chance to explain some of the deeper think-

  ing behind the choice in a note in the Order of Service, so

  that the congregation can understand the way it neatly ties

  together many different areas of Lewis’s life and work. The fact

  that it comes from an address entitled “Is Theology Poetry?”

  makes it particularly apt for Poets’ Corner, I think.

  xxii

  introduction

  SMITH

  It’s been fifty years since Lewis died and in that period his

  reputation has been developing in various ways. How would

  you describe what his legacy is and is becoming?

  WARD
<
br />   It’s too big and too varied to speak about in just a short answer.

  You only need to look at the huge numbers of books and ar-

  ticles that are published about Lewis every year to see the size

  of it. Some people dislike Lewis intensely. Some people simply

  dismiss him. But I think that the majority of those who engage

  with him seriously, even though they may disagree with him,

  find him stimulating, helpful, even inspiring in a number of

  different ways, as a scholar, as a thinker, and as a writer.

  I think that, as time goes by, people are coming to real-

  ize that Lewis, whether you happen to agree with him or not,

  is a very substantial figure who needs to be reckoned with.

  His combination of intellect, imagination, and faith is rare.

  It’s influential. At the very least, it’s interesting. I think it’s not insignificant that the publishing houses of Lewis’s two universities, Oxford University Press and Cambridge University

  Press, have in recent years begun to publish scholarly works

  that address and analyse his impact. OUP has to date pub-

  lished three titles on Lewis’s writings, and CUP has published

  The Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis. As time goes by and Lewis’s readership shows no sign of waning—on the contrary,

  it only seems to be growing and deepening—he is coming to

  the attention of many people who wouldn’t automatically re-

  gard him as worth consideration. But an enduring audience,

  fifty years after death, is unusual and can’t be ignored for ever.

  And I think the fact that Lewis’s great friend, Tolkien, is also

  showing no signs of disappearing from the cultural landscape

  reacts favourably on Lewis’s own standing.

  The two men together are now established, I think, as

  unavoidably major figures from the middle of the last century.

  If you want to understand the intellectual and imaginative

  history of the English-speaking world over the last sixty or

  seventy years, you have to take these two into account. They’re

  becoming increasingly rooted as a pair of giants, like Word-

  sworth and Coleridge, for example, from the previous century.

  SMITH

  What do you hope will be the broader outcome of this event

  and the memorial?

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  xxiii

  WARD

  The unveiling of the memorial is bound to receive a lot of me-

  dia attention round the world, and I’m sure that that will result