2. Roots

‘Roots’ recounts Clive Staples Lewis’s early life in a close-knit Christian family—his parents, Albert and Flora, and his brother, Warren—in County Down, Northern Ireland. His atheism was probably triggered by his mother’s death when he was not quite ten. His early schooling was much improved by his private tutor, William T. Kirkpatrick, who added dialectical precision to the rhetorical and argumentative disposition Lewis inherited from Albert. The impact of George MacDonald’s Phantastes on Lewis is highlighted, along with his service in World War I; his time as an undergraduate at Keble College, Oxford; his election to a fellowship at Magdalen College; his diary writing; and his conversion to Christianity.

7. End game

‘End game’ describes the growing friendship between C. S. Lewis and T. S. Eliot as well as the dislike held between Lewis and F. R. Leavis and his followers, the Leavisites. It describes his works, A Study in Words (1960) and An Experiment in Criticism (1961), as well as his numerous short essays, many of which dealt with religious themes, with the interaction of religion and society, with social and cultural features as he saw them, or with cultural mistakes. It also outlines The Discarded Image (1964), which was a masterly introduction to medieval and Renaissance literature. Ill health forced his resignation and he died on 22 November 1963.

6. A new day

In The Chronicles, Lewis comes as close to mysticism as he has in any other book, for Aslan, the holy of holies is the numinous made present. Though his apologetic writing becomes less polemical, a public not-avowedly Christian Lewis remains militant. Lewis has undergone many changes: near-despair, forgiveness, marriage, a monumental professional move, and a steady, but very new, rhythm that was less urgent. ‘A new day’ describes his one real novel, Till We Have Faces (1956), and other works: ‘Meditation in a Toolshed’, ‘Membership’, ‘The Seeing Eye’, Reflections on the Psalms, and The Four Loves. After the death of Joy in 1960, Lewis published A Grief Observed under the pseudonym N. W. Clerk.

5. Darkness and light

‘Darkness and light’ begins with a discussion of George MacDonald: An Anthology and Miracles (both 1947). It also describes Lewis’s home life, his wedding to Joy Gresham in 1955, and his appointment as Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Other key works around this time included English Literature in the Sixteenth Century and De Descriptione Temporum, but the most famous of his works—The Chronicles of Narnia—were finally completed in 1953. The seven books—The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; Prince Caspian; The Voyage of the ‘Dawn Treader’; The Silver Chair; The Horse and His Boy; The Magician’s Nephew; and The Last Battle—describe the world of Narnia.

3. Lewis ascendant

‘Lewis ascendant’ considers C. S. Lewis’s time in Oxford as a fellow at Magdalen College. It discusses his life as a tutor and lecturer, his writing through this period, and his friendships with the Inklings, an informal group of like-minded men who met regularly to converse and to read works-in-progress aloud. The literary result of Lewis’s conversion to Christianity was The Pilgrim’s Regress (1933), which displayed a dynamic new voice backed by a steel-trap mind and an imagination to match. The Allegory of Love (1936), a landmark of literary history, established Lewis as among the major literary medievalists in the world. Very different in tone are his sermons, including ‘Learning in War Time’ and ‘Transposition’.

1. Lewis on the way

‘Lewis on the way’ describes the many images of C. S. Lewis—the author and the man. He was a Christian writer, religious and social philosopher, teacher, conversationalist, and general man of letters; he was imaginative and rational, authoritative and familiar, witty though intellectually severe, combative and mild, certain yet somehow restrained, defiant and unfashionable while also gregarious, good-humoured, and popular to the point of being charismatic. It concludes that his personal influence upon millions of people is deep, significant, and abiding, and his personality and life continue to arouse interest. His many voices have produced a trenchant body of work that includes hallmarks of its many types, remains relevant, and invites commentary.

8. The weight of glory

‘The weight of glory’ discusses the varying responses to C. S. Lewis. His critics have often railed against him. Even some of his Christian colleagues found his apologetic militancy unpalatable. Conversely, distinguished scholars have written highly of him and praised his work, literary artists and journalists have cited him for his authority and breadth, and ordinary readers have found still other sources of his appeal. Lewis takes the reader from the possible to the plausible to the intensely pleasurable to the promising and thence to the glories of hope. The last book Lewis saw through the press was Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly on Prayer, a meditation on prayer and praying.

4. Fame

‘Fame’ discusses C. S. Lewis’s work through the 1940s and the rise of his vocation as an apologist. It considers The Screwtape Letters (1942) and his vastly popular BBC talks (which were all to be consolidated and edited by Lewis as Mere Christianity, 1952). Amid prodigious letter writing, he continues the tradition of walking tours with Warren and others from the 1930s and converses with the Inklings. His thoughts on Milton’s Paradise Lost are discussed along with his ideas on the difference between primary and secondary epics. The Abolition of Man, The Great Divorce, and his cosmic mythological fiction—Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength—are also considered.