Some day you will be old enough to read fairy tales
C.S. Lewis
I was introduced to the mind of C. S. (Clive Staples) Lewis through a gift from my best friend. He gave me a copy of The Four Loves as medication for some conflicting developments in a relationship with Marti, the girl of my dreams at the time. Eventually, Marti moved on and met a professor of English at UNC Chapel Hill. I was left with a life-long literary relationship with Lewis and can only trust that Marti found equal tenure with the prof.
C.S. Lewis, one of the last century's leading scholars, novelists, and Christian apologists, was born on this day in 1898. Many readers likely know his name and even more know some of his work - The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Space Trilogy, Mere Christianity, Surprised By Joy - but many may not be familiar with the depth and breadth of his literary accomplishments.
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| C.S. Lewis National Portrait Gallery, London |
Immersed the the world of the university scholar where he was a close friend and colleague of J. R.R. Tolkein, Lewis enjoyed the community but also appreciated his privacy. For that reason, very few interviews and recordings of the man survive. One tape still with us is a fifteen-minute talk he gave over BBC Radio during a three part series of presentations between 1942 and 1944. The recording reveals the great warmth, friendliness, and integrity of the man.
The talks soon appeared as three separate books shortly after World War II. In 1952, the series was edited into a single book, Mere Christianity. It's now considered a masterpiece in Christian apologetics.
If you cannot enjoy a Lewis book you simply haven't read enough of his work. And there is enough to accommodate readers as his Wikipedia bibliography has almost eighty entries of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Choose...and enjoy.
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither
C.S. Lewis
1 comment:
Old Tybee Ranger, you're new to me though I've lived on Tybee part-time for almost 20 years.
I've enjoyed several of your posts beginning with Conrad Aiken this morning and just now C.S. Lewis. I have read a bit of both authors, though not recently, and what drew me to your blog was information about Aiken's "Cosmos Mariner". I'm a songwriter and have had that title in my notebook for a good while (many visits to Bonaventure for that bench and Johnny Mercer), thinking now might be a good time to turn it into something. My name is Jim Wann and you can find me at jimwann.com, fb, and pjwann23@gmail.com. I'm putting together a new series of songs on coastal themes, a passion of mine. Thanks for your posts and may you be safe and well.
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