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C. S. Lewis
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1898 C.S. Lewis was born on November 29 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as the son of Albert.J. Lewis (1863-1929), a solicitor, and Florence Augusta Hamilton Lewis (1862-1908). His brother Warren Hamilton Lewis had been born on June 16, 1895. His mother, a promising mathematician, died when he was nine years old - Lewis had been very close to his mother and with her death he lost his feeling of security. Lewis started writing early - in the attic of their house he had a "study" where he composed his stories. After attending schools in Hertfordshire, Northern Ireland and Malvern, he was educated at home in 1914-17. "I am the product of long corridors, empty sunlit rooms, upstair indoor silences, attics explored in solitude, distant noises of gurgling cisterns and pipes, and the noise of wind under the tiles. Also of endless books," Lewis wrote in his autobiographical book Surprised by Joy (1955). "There were books in the study, books in the drawing-room, books in the cloakroom, books (two deep) in the great bookcase on the landing, books in a bedroom, books piled as high as my shoulder in the cistern attic, books of all kinds reflecting every transient stage of my parents' interests, books readable and unreadable, books suitable for a child and books most empathically not. Nothing was forbidden me. In the seemingly endless rainy afternoons I took volume after volume from the shelves..." Lewis's early favorites were Edit Nesbit's books which mixed fantasy with reality, Conan Doyle's Sir Nige, and the unpolish edition of Gulliver's Travels. Later he read the Norse myths and sagas, and such historical books as Henryk Sienkiewicz's Quo Vadis and Lew Wallace's Ben Hur. And then he found Odyssey, Voltaire, Milton and Spenser. Lewis's private tutor taught him to read Greek for pleasure, and later in Oxford he took a Classical "Double First". 1905
The
Lewis family moved to their new home, "Little Lea," on the outskirts
of Belfast.
1908
Flora Hamilton Lewis, a promising mathematician died of cancer on August 23,
Albert Lewis' (her husband's) birthday. During this year Albert Lewis' father
and brother also died. In September Lewis was enrolled at Wynyard School,
Watford, Hertfordshire referred to by C.S. Lewis as "Oldie's School"
or "Belsen". His brother had entered in May 1905. 1910
Lewis left "Belsen" in June and, in September, was enrolled as a
boarding student at Campbell College, Belfast, one mile from "Little
Lea," where he remained until November, when he was withdrawn upon
developing serious respiratory difficulties. 1911
Lewis was sent to Malvern, England, which was famous as a health resort,
especially for those with lung problems. Lewis was enrolled as a student at
Cherbourg House (which he referred to as "Chartres"), a prep school
close by Malvern College where Warnie was enrolled as a student. Jack remained
there until June 1913. It was during this time that he abandoned his childhood
Christian faith. He entered Malvern College itself (which he dubbed
"Wyvern") in September 1913 and stayed until the following June.
1914In
April, Lewis met Arthur Greeves (1895-1966), of whom he said, in 1933,
"After my brother, my oldest and most intimate friend." On September
19, Lewis commenced private study with W.T. Kirkpatrick, "The Great
Knock," in Great Bookham Surrey, with whom he was to remain until April
1917. William T. Kirkpatrick (1848-1921) was former Headmaster of Lurgan
College, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, from 1874-99. Albert Lewis had
attended Lurgan from 1877-79 and later was Kirkpatrick's solicitor. After
Kilpatrick retired from Lurgan in 1899, he began taking private students and had
already successfully prepared Lewis' brother, Warnie, for admission to the Royal
Military College at Sandhurst. 1916
In February, Lewis first read George MacDonald's, Phantastes, which powerfully
"baptized his imagination" and impressed him with a deep sense of the
holy. He made his first trip to Oxford in December to take a scholarship
examination. 1917
From April 26 until September, Lewis was a student at University College,
Oxford. Upon the outbreak of WWI, he enlisted in the British army and was
billeted in Keble College, Oxford, for officer's training. His roommate was
Edward Courtnay Francis "Paddy" Moore (1898-1918). Jack was
commissioned an officer in the 3rd Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry, on
September 25 and reached the front line in the Somme Valley in France on his
19th birthday. 1918
On April 15 Lewis was wounded on Mount Berenchon during the Battle of Arras. He
recuperated and was returned to duty in October, being assigned to Ludgerhall,
Andover, England. He was discharged in December 1919. His former roommate and
friend, Paddy Moore, was killed in battle and buried in the field just south of
Peronne, France. 1919
The February issue of Reveille contained "Death in Battle," Lewis'
first publication in other than school magazines. The issue had poems by Robert
Bridges, Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, and Hilaire Belloc. From January 1919
until June 1924, he resumed his studies at University College, Oxford, where he
received a First in Honour Moderations (Greek and Latin Literature) in 1920, a
First in Greats (Philosophy and Ancient History) in 1922, and a First in English
in 1923. His tutors during this time included A.B. Poynton for Honour Mods, E.F.
Carritt for Philosophy, F.P. Wilson and George Gordon in the English School, and
E.E. Wardale for Old English. 1920
During the summer, Paddy Moore's mother, Mrs. Janie King Moore (1873-1951) and
her daughter, Maureen, moved to Oxford, renting a house in Headington Quarry.
Lewis lived with the Moores from June 1921 onward. In August 1930, they moved to
"Hillsboro," Western Road, Headington. In October 1930, Mrs. Moore,
Jack, and Major Lewis purchased "The Kilns" jointly, with title to the
property being taken solely in the name of Mrs. Moore with the two brothers
holding rights of life tenancy. Major Lewis retired from the military and joined
them at "The Kilns" in 1932.
1921
W.T. Kirkpatrick died in March. Lewis' essay "Optimism" won the
Chancellor's English Essay Prize in May. (No copy of "Optimism" has
been found as of this date.) 1924
From October 1924 until May 1925, Lewis served as philosophy tutor at University
College during E.F. Carritt's absence on study leave for the year in America.
1925
On May 20, Lewis was elected a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, where he
served as tutor in English Language and Literature for 29 years until leaving
for Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1954. 1929
Lewis became a theist: "In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted
that God was God, and knelt and prayed...." Albert Lewis died on September
24. 1931
Lewis
became a Christian: One evening in September, Lewis had a long talk on
Christianity with J.R.R. Tolkien (a devout Roman Catholic) and Hugo Dyson. (The
summary of that discussion is recounted for Arthur Greeves in They Stand
Together.) That evening's discussion was important in bringing about the
following day's event that Lewis recorded in Surprised by Joy: "When we [Warnie
and Jack] set out [by motorcycle to the Whipsnade Zoo] I did not believe that
Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did."
1933
The fall term marked the beginning of Lewis' convening of a circle of friends
dubbed "The Inklings." For the next 16 years, on through 1949, they
continued to meet in Jack's rooms at Magdalen College on Thursday evenings and,
just before lunch on Mondays or Fridays, in a back room at "The Eagle and
Child," a pub known to locals as "The Bird and Baby." Members
included J.R.R. Tolkien, Warnie, Hugo Dyson, Charles Williams, Dr. Robert Havard,
Owen Barfield, Weville Coghill and others. (See Humphry Carpenters The Inklings
for a full account of this special group.) 1935
At the suggestion of Prof. F.P. Wilson, Lewis agreed to write the volume on 16th
Century English Literature for the Oxford History of English Literature series.
Published in 1954, it became a classic.
1937
Lewis received the Gollancz Memorial Prize for Literature in recognition of The
Allegory of Love (a study in medieval tradition). 1939
At the outbreak of World War II in September, Charles Williams moved from London
to Oxford with the Oxford University Press to escape the threat of German
bombardment. He was thereafter a regular member of "The Inklings."
1941
From May 2 until November 28, The Guardian published 31 "Screwtape
Letters" in weekly installments. Lewis was paid 2 pounds sterling for each
letter and gave the money to charity. In August, he gave four live radio talks
over the BBC on Wednesday evenings from 7:45 to 8:00. An additional 15-minute
session, answering questions received in the mail, was broadcast on September 6.
These talks were known as "Right and Wrong."
1942
The first meeting of the "Socratic Club" was held in Oxford on January
26. In January and February, Lewis gave five live radio talks on Sunday evenings
from 4:45 to 5:00, on the subject "What Christians Believe." On eight
consecutive Sundays, from September 20 to November 8 at 2:50 to 3:05 p.m., Lewis
gave a series of live radio talks known as "Christian Behavior."
1943
In February, at the University of Durham, Lewis delivered the Riddell Memorial
Lectures (Fifteenth Series), a series of three lectures subsequently published
as The Abolition of Man.
1944
On seven consecutive Tuesdays, from February 22 to April 4 at 10:15 to 10:30
p.m., Lewis gave the pre-recorded talks known as "Beyond Personality."
Taken together, all of Lewis' BBC radio broadcast talks were eventually
published under the title Mere Christianity. From November 10, 1944 to April 14,
1945, The Great Divorce was published in weekly installments in The Guardian.
(The Guardian was a religious newspaper that ceased publication in 1951; it had
no connection with the Manchester Guardian.)
1945
Charles Williams, one of Lewis' very closest of friends, died on May 15.
1946
Lewis awarded honorary Doctor of Divinity by the University of St. Andrews.
1948
On February 2, Elizabeth Anscombe, later Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge,
read her "Reply to Mr. C.S. Lewis' Argument that 'Naturalism is
Self-refuting'" to the Socratic Club; Anscombe's argument caused Lewis to
revise Chapter 3 of Miracles when it was reprinted by Fontana in 1960. Later in
the year, Lewis was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
1951
Mrs. Moore died on January 12. Since the previous April, she had been confined
to a nursing home in Oxford. She is buried in the yard of Holy Trinity Church in
Headington Quarry, Oxford. Lewis lost the election for the position of Professor
of Poetry at Oxford to C. Day Lewis. In December, he declined election to the
Order of the British Empire.
1952
Lewis was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by Laval University,
Quebec. In September, he met Joy Davidman, fifteen years his junior (b. April
18, 1915 - d. July 13, 1960), for the first time.
1954
In June, Lewis accepted the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at
Cambridge. He gave his Inaugural Lecture, "De Description Temporum,"
on his 56th birthday and gave his last tutorial at Oxford on December 3. His
review of Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring appeared in Time and Tide in
August.
1955
Lewis assumed his duties at Cambridge in January. During his years at Cambridge,
he lived at Magdalene College, Cambridge, during the week in term and at The
Kilns in Oxford on weekends and during vacations. Lewis was elected an Honorary
Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and was also elected a Fellow of the British
Academy.
1956
Lewis received the Carnegie Medal in recognition of The Last Battle. On April
23, he entered into a civil marriage with Joy Davidman at the Oxford Registry
Office for the purpose of conferring upon her the status of British citizenship
in order to prevent her threatened deportation by British migration authorities.
In December, a bedside marriage was performed in accordance with the rites of
the Church of England in Wingfield Hospital. Joy's death was thought to be
imminent.
1958
Throughout 1957, Joy had experienced an extraordinary recovery from her near
terminal bout with cancer. In July of 1958, Jack and Joy went to Ireland for a
10-day holiday. On August 19 and 20, he made tapes of ten talks on The Four
Loves in London. Lewis was elected an Honorary Fellow of University College,
Oxford.
1959
Lewis was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature by the University
of Manchester.
1960
Subsequent to learning of the return of Joy's cancer, Jack and Joy, together
with Roger Lancelyn Green and his wife, Joy, went to Greece from April 3 to
April 14, visiting Athens, Mycenae, Rhodes, Herakleon, and Knossos. There was a
one-day stop in Pisa on the return. Joy died on July 13 at the age of 45, not
long after their return from Greece. 1963
Lewis died at 5:30 p.m. at The Kilns, one week before his 65th birthday on
Friday, November 22; the same day on which President Kennedy was assassinated
and Alduous Huxley died. He had resigned his position at Cambridge during the
summer and was then elected an Honorary Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge.
His grave is in the yard of Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry, Oxford.
Warren Lewis died on Monday, April 9, 1973. Their names are on a single stone
bearing the inscription "Men must endure their going hence." Warnie
had written, "...there was a Shakespearean calendar hanging on the wall of
the room where she [our mother] died, and my father preserved for the rest of
his life the leaf for that day, with its quotation: 'Men must endure their going
hence'." --W.H. Lewis, "Memoir," in Letters of C.S. Lewis).
British literary critic, scholar and author, known for his classic fantasy stories for children, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA (1950-1956), which shows the influence of J.R.R. Tolkien. During his literary career Lewis was also one of the most popular spokesmen for Christianity in the English-speaking world. "'When Aslan said you could never go back to Narnia, he meant the Narnia you were thinking of. But that was not the real Narnia. That had a beginning and an end. It was only a shadow or a copy of the real Narnia which has always been there and always will be there: just as our own world, England and all, is only a shadow or copy of something in Aslan's real world. You need not mourn over Narnia, Lucy. All of the old Narnia that mattered, all he dear creatures, have been drawn into the real Narnia through the Door. And of course it is different; as different as a real thing is from a shadow or as waking life is from a dream.'" (from The Last Battle, 1956) For further reading: C.S. Lewis: A Biography, by Roger Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper (1974); The Inklings, by Humphrey Carpenter (1978); Shadowlands: The Story of C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman, by Brian Sibley (1985); C.S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion by J. Beverluis (1985); Clive Staples Lewis by W. Griffin (1986); The C.S. Lewis Hoax by Kathryn Lindskoog (1988); C.S. Lewis: A Biography, by A.N. Wilson (1990); The Fiction of C.S. Lewis by K. Filmer (1993); The Chronicle of Narnia by C.N. Manlove (1993); The Man Who Created Narnia by M. Coren (1996); C.S. Lewis: Christian and Storyteller by B. Gromley (1998); Sleuthing C.S. Lewis: More Light in the Shadowlands by Kathryn Lindskoog (2001)- See other fantasy worlds: Tove Jansson (The Moomintrolls), J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth Selected bibliography:
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