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C. S. Lewis: A Biography
Walter Hooper
Roger Lancelyn Green
This is the true story of C.S. Lewis – one of the greatest writers of the 20th-century – whose books for children and adults have become much loved classics.Part of the story of C.S. Lewis has been made famous through the film ‘Shadowlands’. Here this fascinating man’s entire life story is told by those who knew him personally.C.S. Lewis was born in Belfast in 1898 and was sent to England for a public school education with his elder brother, Warren. Lewis exhibited a genius for imagination and perception from his earliest years. Brought up in a Christian household, Lewis lost his faith in his teenage years but was to regain it, with reluctance, as a fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford. His faith subsequently influenced his writings. He became a vigorous champion of the Christian faith through classics such as ‘Mere Christianity’ and through his BBC broadcasts.His ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ became children’s classics and he was deluged with correspondence from his young readers.In his latter years he unexpectedly fell deeply in love with a divorced American, Joy Greshem, and married her, only to suffer the devastation of her death a few years later. C.S. Lewis died in 1963 at his home in Oxford.During his lifetime C.S. Lewis suggested to his friend, Roger Lancelyn Green, who was a fellow English scholar, that he would undertake his biography one day. After Lewis’s death in 1963 Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper were approached by several of Lewis’s friends to write the biography. Warren Lewis, brother to Jack, contributed a great deal to the writing. The authors had at their disposal a vast collection of letters and diaries, as well as the recollections of many surviving family members and friends.Walter Hooper has enhanced the original text with additional material to provide a new, expanded edition which all C.S. Lewis fans will be keen to own.
C.S. LEWIS
A BIOGRAPHY
FULLY REVISED & EXPANDED EDITION
Roger Lancelyn Green &Walter Hooper
COPYRIGHT (#ulink_1b7e3721-dd3b-5568-8a01-31b3e7c3e5f9)
HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
Published in Great Britain by
HarperCollinsPublishers 2002
First published by Collins 1974
© Roger Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper 1974
Fully revised and expanded edition © Richard Lancelyn Green
(Literary Estate of Roger Lancelyn Green)
and Walter Hooper 2002
Roger Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Source ISBN: 9780006281641
Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007404476
Version: 2016-07-19
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.
CONTENTS
Cover (#u80ac1439-c702-57d0-980e-13a306bdcfe1)
Title Page (#u48fa9e6f-4f62-5a40-bab8-a975765104fe)
Copyright (#u8a298a13-d3c8-540d-b8e8-6e6c7b361e36)
Preface to the Revised Edition (#uc4f04f03-dac9-5900-9f6d-330590572fc3)
Preface to the First Edition (#u76321337-7fdd-57ff-9768-cd8ce9c0cbed)
Abbreviations (#u843980c8-41db-56cc-9468-a73c9ab1caa9)
Prologue – Ancestry (#u19d7ad36-4ec1-5081-bc20-3d70d1422480)
1. Early Days (#u064d1bc6-bd3a-5df0-83cc-648b6c08d7d1)
2. Oxford: The War and After (#u11404f0c-c99c-5b2a-baf1-241b2129a5de)
3. The Young Don (#u5b0596a8-f089-5da5-a040-f7feb9e2f8ea)
4. Conversion (#u069fb879-3c46-58d5-953f-ee244d9076d7)
5. Christian Scholar and Allegorist (#ue54a97bf-8bc5-598a-95ac-9356adbda66d)
6. Inklings and Others (#ub976ce82-d724-5805-ae79-72bb8dd1c3eb)
7. Into the of Arbol (#uacea89ba-c859-5a67-9ca4-3d1ea4f08d96)
8. Talk of the Devil (#u4d30c4dd-7be8-5cc7-9773-900cde0c8d04)
9. ‘Mere Christianity’ (#u04a3648c-6d9f-58c1-898b-db553d18e05d)
10. The Crusading Intellect (#u3aa92a8c-e4ae-58f1-9ebb-8dcc3faf8104)
11. Through the Wardrobe (#ub00c9bbe-9681-5030-afad-1a481373897c)
12. Surprised by Joy (#u94814fb2-7954-5151-bcab-7a50a3852513)
13. Marriage (#u28c93698-ee4f-59c9-898a-25b83c67f8a5)
14. ‘The Term is Over’ (#u39e35d41-77a8-50f2-b0e3-f48591b16951)
Index (#u71d34cbd-c5c0-50c1-8840-76458a107cd9)
About the Author (#uae777697-8389-53c2-b554-e078a4e6d429)
About the Publisher (#u578298db-d830-5612-937f-7693c68631c8)
PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION (#ulink_1b957069-1c70-59c8-a59f-eb9356a6da2f)
Even while Roger Lancelyn Green and I were writing this biography we knew it would someday need revising. C.S. Lewis was a prolific letter-writer and, since the book was published in 1974, many new letters have come to light. Numerous reminiscences by former students and others have also been published since that time. Besides this, a new generation of Lewis readers was coming along, and we knew that, besides incorporating much new material into our book, certain adjustments in the portrayal of Lewis and his world would be needed.
It is a matter of great sadness to me that Roger and I were not able to work on this new edition of the biography together. Roger Lancelyn Green died on 8 October 1987, and I have had to revise it by myself. Even so, I do not think my old friend would find it a very different book from the one we wrote together. We expected further information to come to light about, among other things, the Inklings, Lewis’s election to a chair at Cambridge, and his marriage to Joy Davidman, and this has meant the book has ‘grown’ by two additional chapters. Still, while I have been the sole reviser, this new edition developed out of plans Roger Lancelyn Green and I made together, and it remains as much his book as mine. We were sorry our original publisher had an aversion to footnotes; I know Roger would be glad to see references to all published and unpublished writings given in the new edition.
C.S. Lewis’s beloved brother, Warnie, died shortly before the first edition of the biography was published. If he were still alive I would thank him again for the help and encouragement he gave us. The extended treatment of the Inklings in this revised biography owes much to Brothers and Friends: The Diaries of Major Warren Hamilton Lewis, ed. Clyde S. Kilby and Marjorie Lamp Mead (1982). I am grateful, as well, to the C.S. Lewis Company for allowing me to quote so extensively from the unpublished letters and papers of C.S. Lewis.
Many others have helped with this new book. I owe particular thanks to my co-author’s son, Richard Lancelyn Green, for sharing his father’s thoughts on C.S. Lewis and helping me in a hundred ways. Of what Lewis called ‘unambiguous debts’ those to whom I owe the most are Dr Francis Warner, Professor Emrys Jones, Dr Barbara Everett, Douglas Gresham, Dr A.J. Reyes, Dr Jeremy Dyson, Professor James Como, Dr Judith Priestman of the Bodleian Library, and my copy-editor, Steve Gove. I am grateful to Michael Ward and Scott Johnson for helping with the proofs. Finally, while this biography continues to be dedicated to C.S. Lewis and W.H. Lewis – Jack and Warnie – I offer my share in the revised book to Roger Lancelyn Green.
WALTER HOOPER
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION (#ulink_453fbe02-9785-5074-8062-a9c73d35c32a)
To write the biography of a man of genius as many-sided as C.S. Lewis is a daunting task, and it has not been undertaken lightly. His ideal biographer would have to be at once a Classical and English scholar, a theologian, a philosopher, an expert on fantasy, science fiction and children’s books – and no one but Lewis himself possessed all these qualifications in sufficient degree.
The two of us who have collaborated in the present volume fall far short of his learning, even in our own subjects: Walter Hooper is a theologian who has read English; Roger Lancelyn Green is an English scholar who has written fantasy and children’s books – both of us know and love the classical lands and have studied their literature; neither of us is a philosopher.
Why, then, are we undertaking this book? As early as May 1953 Lewis suggested to Roger Lancelyn Green that he should one day undertake his biography: when asked by his publisher Jocelyn Gibb of Geoffrey Bles Ltd to write a more formal autobiography than Surprised by Joy, Lewis replied: ‘Oh, no, but when I’m dead I suppose Roger will write my biography and Jock will publish it.’ And during the last six months of his life he was apologizing to Roger for giving Walter material which he might have thought was his special perquisite as chosen biographer.
Under these circumstances when we were approached by several of Lewis’s closest friends, including Jock Gibb, and supported by Warren Lewis, it seemed our duty, as it was our pleasure, to accept the honour, however frightening.
Walter Hooper
Roger Lancelyn Green
This is the true story of C.S. Lewis – one of the greatest writers of the 20th-century – whose books for children and adults have become much loved classics.Part of the story of C.S. Lewis has been made famous through the film ‘Shadowlands’. Here this fascinating man’s entire life story is told by those who knew him personally.C.S. Lewis was born in Belfast in 1898 and was sent to England for a public school education with his elder brother, Warren. Lewis exhibited a genius for imagination and perception from his earliest years. Brought up in a Christian household, Lewis lost his faith in his teenage years but was to regain it, with reluctance, as a fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford. His faith subsequently influenced his writings. He became a vigorous champion of the Christian faith through classics such as ‘Mere Christianity’ and through his BBC broadcasts.His ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ became children’s classics and he was deluged with correspondence from his young readers.In his latter years he unexpectedly fell deeply in love with a divorced American, Joy Greshem, and married her, only to suffer the devastation of her death a few years later. C.S. Lewis died in 1963 at his home in Oxford.During his lifetime C.S. Lewis suggested to his friend, Roger Lancelyn Green, who was a fellow English scholar, that he would undertake his biography one day. After Lewis’s death in 1963 Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper were approached by several of Lewis’s friends to write the biography. Warren Lewis, brother to Jack, contributed a great deal to the writing. The authors had at their disposal a vast collection of letters and diaries, as well as the recollections of many surviving family members and friends.Walter Hooper has enhanced the original text with additional material to provide a new, expanded edition which all C.S. Lewis fans will be keen to own.
C.S. LEWIS
A BIOGRAPHY
FULLY REVISED & EXPANDED EDITION
Roger Lancelyn Green &Walter Hooper
COPYRIGHT (#ulink_1b7e3721-dd3b-5568-8a01-31b3e7c3e5f9)
HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
Published in Great Britain by
HarperCollinsPublishers 2002
First published by Collins 1974
© Roger Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper 1974
Fully revised and expanded edition © Richard Lancelyn Green
(Literary Estate of Roger Lancelyn Green)
and Walter Hooper 2002
Roger Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Source ISBN: 9780006281641
Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007404476
Version: 2016-07-19
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.
CONTENTS
Cover (#u80ac1439-c702-57d0-980e-13a306bdcfe1)
Title Page (#u48fa9e6f-4f62-5a40-bab8-a975765104fe)
Copyright (#u8a298a13-d3c8-540d-b8e8-6e6c7b361e36)
Preface to the Revised Edition (#uc4f04f03-dac9-5900-9f6d-330590572fc3)
Preface to the First Edition (#u76321337-7fdd-57ff-9768-cd8ce9c0cbed)
Abbreviations (#u843980c8-41db-56cc-9468-a73c9ab1caa9)
Prologue – Ancestry (#u19d7ad36-4ec1-5081-bc20-3d70d1422480)
1. Early Days (#u064d1bc6-bd3a-5df0-83cc-648b6c08d7d1)
2. Oxford: The War and After (#u11404f0c-c99c-5b2a-baf1-241b2129a5de)
3. The Young Don (#u5b0596a8-f089-5da5-a040-f7feb9e2f8ea)
4. Conversion (#u069fb879-3c46-58d5-953f-ee244d9076d7)
5. Christian Scholar and Allegorist (#ue54a97bf-8bc5-598a-95ac-9356adbda66d)
6. Inklings and Others (#ub976ce82-d724-5805-ae79-72bb8dd1c3eb)
7. Into the of Arbol (#uacea89ba-c859-5a67-9ca4-3d1ea4f08d96)
8. Talk of the Devil (#u4d30c4dd-7be8-5cc7-9773-900cde0c8d04)
9. ‘Mere Christianity’ (#u04a3648c-6d9f-58c1-898b-db553d18e05d)
10. The Crusading Intellect (#u3aa92a8c-e4ae-58f1-9ebb-8dcc3faf8104)
11. Through the Wardrobe (#ub00c9bbe-9681-5030-afad-1a481373897c)
12. Surprised by Joy (#u94814fb2-7954-5151-bcab-7a50a3852513)
13. Marriage (#u28c93698-ee4f-59c9-898a-25b83c67f8a5)
14. ‘The Term is Over’ (#u39e35d41-77a8-50f2-b0e3-f48591b16951)
Index (#u71d34cbd-c5c0-50c1-8840-76458a107cd9)
About the Author (#uae777697-8389-53c2-b554-e078a4e6d429)
About the Publisher (#u578298db-d830-5612-937f-7693c68631c8)
PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION (#ulink_1b957069-1c70-59c8-a59f-eb9356a6da2f)
Even while Roger Lancelyn Green and I were writing this biography we knew it would someday need revising. C.S. Lewis was a prolific letter-writer and, since the book was published in 1974, many new letters have come to light. Numerous reminiscences by former students and others have also been published since that time. Besides this, a new generation of Lewis readers was coming along, and we knew that, besides incorporating much new material into our book, certain adjustments in the portrayal of Lewis and his world would be needed.
It is a matter of great sadness to me that Roger and I were not able to work on this new edition of the biography together. Roger Lancelyn Green died on 8 October 1987, and I have had to revise it by myself. Even so, I do not think my old friend would find it a very different book from the one we wrote together. We expected further information to come to light about, among other things, the Inklings, Lewis’s election to a chair at Cambridge, and his marriage to Joy Davidman, and this has meant the book has ‘grown’ by two additional chapters. Still, while I have been the sole reviser, this new edition developed out of plans Roger Lancelyn Green and I made together, and it remains as much his book as mine. We were sorry our original publisher had an aversion to footnotes; I know Roger would be glad to see references to all published and unpublished writings given in the new edition.
C.S. Lewis’s beloved brother, Warnie, died shortly before the first edition of the biography was published. If he were still alive I would thank him again for the help and encouragement he gave us. The extended treatment of the Inklings in this revised biography owes much to Brothers and Friends: The Diaries of Major Warren Hamilton Lewis, ed. Clyde S. Kilby and Marjorie Lamp Mead (1982). I am grateful, as well, to the C.S. Lewis Company for allowing me to quote so extensively from the unpublished letters and papers of C.S. Lewis.
Many others have helped with this new book. I owe particular thanks to my co-author’s son, Richard Lancelyn Green, for sharing his father’s thoughts on C.S. Lewis and helping me in a hundred ways. Of what Lewis called ‘unambiguous debts’ those to whom I owe the most are Dr Francis Warner, Professor Emrys Jones, Dr Barbara Everett, Douglas Gresham, Dr A.J. Reyes, Dr Jeremy Dyson, Professor James Como, Dr Judith Priestman of the Bodleian Library, and my copy-editor, Steve Gove. I am grateful to Michael Ward and Scott Johnson for helping with the proofs. Finally, while this biography continues to be dedicated to C.S. Lewis and W.H. Lewis – Jack and Warnie – I offer my share in the revised book to Roger Lancelyn Green.
WALTER HOOPER
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION (#ulink_453fbe02-9785-5074-8062-a9c73d35c32a)
To write the biography of a man of genius as many-sided as C.S. Lewis is a daunting task, and it has not been undertaken lightly. His ideal biographer would have to be at once a Classical and English scholar, a theologian, a philosopher, an expert on fantasy, science fiction and children’s books – and no one but Lewis himself possessed all these qualifications in sufficient degree.
The two of us who have collaborated in the present volume fall far short of his learning, even in our own subjects: Walter Hooper is a theologian who has read English; Roger Lancelyn Green is an English scholar who has written fantasy and children’s books – both of us know and love the classical lands and have studied their literature; neither of us is a philosopher.
Why, then, are we undertaking this book? As early as May 1953 Lewis suggested to Roger Lancelyn Green that he should one day undertake his biography: when asked by his publisher Jocelyn Gibb of Geoffrey Bles Ltd to write a more formal autobiography than Surprised by Joy, Lewis replied: ‘Oh, no, but when I’m dead I suppose Roger will write my biography and Jock will publish it.’ And during the last six months of his life he was apologizing to Roger for giving Walter material which he might have thought was his special perquisite as chosen biographer.
Under these circumstances when we were approached by several of Lewis’s closest friends, including Jock Gibb, and supported by Warren Lewis, it seemed our duty, as it was our pleasure, to accept the honour, however frightening.
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