C.S. Lewis Biography
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Clive Staples Lewis (November 29, 1898 –
November 22, 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis, was an Irish
author and scholar, born into a Protestant family in Belfast, though
mostly resident in England. Lewis is known for his work on medieval
literature and for his Christian apologetics and fiction, especially the
children's series entitled The Chronicles of Narnia.
****
Early life
Clive Staples Lewis was born in Belfast,
Ireland (now Northern Ireland), to Albert James Lewis and Flora Augusta
Hamilton Lewis. He had a brother, Warren Hamilton Lewis (Warnie), three
years his elder. He adopted the name "Jack" as a boy, simply because he
liked the sound of it. From that point on, he was known by this nickname
by close friends and family. Lewis' mother died in 1908, and he was sent
to a number of different schools in England. Around 1913 he abandoned
his childhood Christian faith.
Lewis had a passion for "dressed animals"
as a boy, falling in love with Beatrix Potter's stories and often
writing and illustrating his own animal stories. He and his brother,
Warnie, together created the world of Boxen, which was inhabited and run
by animals. Lewis loved to read, and as his father's house was filled
with books, he felt that finding a book he hadn't read was as easy as
finding a blade of grass. He also had a mortal fear of spiders and
insects as a child, so they often haunted his dreams.
As a teenager, he was wonderstruck by
Richard Wagner and the songs and legends of the North. They intensified
a longing he had within him, a deep desire he would later call "joy." He
also grew to love nature—the beautiful scenes in nature reminded him of
the stories of the North, and the stories of the North reminded him of
the beauties of nature. In his teenage years, his writing moved away
from the tales of Boxen, and he began to use different art forms (poetry
and opera) to try and capture his newfound interest in Norse mythology
and in the natural world.
In 1916 Lewis won a scholarship to
University College, Oxford while World War I was raging. Because he was
Irish, Lewis was exempted from the draft, but against his father's
wishes he enlisted in the British Army in 1917. He was commissioned as
an officer in the third Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry. Lewis
arrived at the front line in the Somme Valley in France on his
nineteenth birthday, where he met a fellow Irishman, Paddy Moore.
Lewis and Moore agreed that if either of
them was killed, the other would take care of his family. Moore was
killed in action and Lewis kept his promise. After the war, Lewis sought
out Paddy's mother, who lived with him until the end of her life. Many
scholars believe that she is the basis of the characters of "the
Patient's mother" in the Screwtape Letters and Mrs. Macready in the
Narnia books.
Lewis was wounded during the Battle of
Arras, and suffered some depression, due in part to missing his Irish
home. On his recovery, he was assigned duty in England. He was
discharged in December 1918, and returned to his studies. 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.
"My Irish Life"
Lewis experienced a certain cultural shock
when living in England. “No Englishman will be able to understand my
first impressions of England,” Lewis wrote in Surprised by Joy. “The
strange English accents with which I was surrounded seemed like the
voices of demons. But what was worst was the English landscape… I have
made up the quarrel since; but at that moment I conceived a hatred for
England which took many years to heal.”
From his youth, Lewis had immersed himself
in Irish mythology and literature and expressed an interest in the Irish
language. He later developed a particular fondness for W. B. Yeats, in
part because of Yeats’s use of Ireland’s Celtic heritage in poetry. In a
letter to a friend Lewis wrote, "I have here discovered an author
exactly after my own heart, whom I am sure you would delight in, W. B.
Yeats. He writes plays and poems of rare spirit and beauty about our old
Irish mythology."
He was surprised to find his English peers
indifferent to Yeats and the Celtic Twilight movement. In describing his
time at Oxford he wrote, “I am often surprised to find how utterly
ignored Yeats is among the men I have met: perhaps his appeal is purely
Irish — if so, then thank the gods that I am Irish.”
Perhaps to help cope with his environment,
Lewis even expressed a somewhat tongue in cheek chauvinism toward the
English. Describing an encounter with a fellow Irishman he wrote, “Like
all Irish people who meet in England we ended by criticisms of the
inevitable flippancy and dullness of the Anglo-Saxon race. After all,
ami, there is no doubt that the Irish are the only people… I would not
gladly live or die among another folk.”
Lewis did indeed live and die among another
folk, due to his Oxford career and often expressed a certain regret at
having to leave Ireland. Throughout his life, he sought out the company
of his fellow Irish living in England and visited Ireland regularly. He
called this “my Irish life”.
Early in his career, Lewis considered
sending his work to the major Dublin publishers. In a letter to a friend
he wrote, "If I do ever send my stuff to a publisher, I think I shall
try Maunsel, those Dublin people, and so tack myself definitely onto the
Irish school." After his conversion to Christianity, his interests
gravitated towards Christian spirituality and away from Celtic
mysticism.
Conversion to Christianity
Although an atheist for the early part of
his adult life, Lewis began investigating the claims of Christianity
during the twenties. In 1929 he came to believe in the existence of God,
later writing "In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that
God was God, and knelt and prayed", describing himself later as "the
most reluctant convert of all time". In 1931, influenced by his friend
J.R.R. Tolkien, he became a Christian and a member of the Church of
England. He was later to write an account of his journey of faith under
the title Surprised by Joy.
Career as a scholar
Lewis taught as a fellow of Magdalen
College, Oxford, for nearly thirty years, from 1925 to 1954, and later
was the first Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at the
University of Cambridge and a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge.
Using this position, he argued that there was no such thing as an
English Renaissance. Much of his scholarly work concentrated on the
later Middle Ages, especially its use of allegory. His The Allegory of
Love (1936) helped reinvigorate the serious study of late medieval
narratives like the Roman de la Rose. Lewis wrote a preface to John
Milton's poem Paradise Lost, which is still one of the most important
criticisms of that work. His last academic work, The Discarded Image, an
Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature (1964), is a summary
of the medieval world view, the "discarded image" of the cosmos in his
title.
Lewis was a prolific writer and a member of
the literary discussion society The Inklings with his friends J. R. R.
Tolkien, Charles Williams, and Owen Barfield.
Career as a writer of fiction
In addition to his scholarly work, Lewis
wrote a number of popular novels, including his science-fiction "Space
Trilogy," his fantasy Narnia books, and various other novels, most
containing allegories on Christian themes such as sin, the Fall, and
redemption. For more information about those works, see their individual
Wikipedia articles.
The Pilgrim's Regress. His first novel
after becoming a Christian was The Pilgrim's Regress, his take on John
Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress which depicted his own experience with
Christianity. The book was panned at the time. Most people had not had
Lewis's experience and couldn't relate.
Space Trilogy. His "Space Trilogy" or
"Ransom Trilogy" novels dealt with what Lewis saw as the then-current
dehumanizing trends in modern science fiction. The first book, Out of
the Silent Planet, was apparently written following a conversation with
his friend J. R. R. Tolkien about these trends. Lewis agreed to write a
"space travel" story and Tolkien a "time travel" one. Tolkien's story,
The Lost Road, a tale connecting his Middle-earth mythology and the
modern world, was never completed. Lewis's character of Ransom is
generally agreed to be based, in part, on Tolkien. The minor character
"Jules," from That Hideous Strength, is an obvious caricature of H. G.
Wells. Many of the ideas presented in the books, particularly in That
Hideous Strength, are dramatizations of arguments made more formally in
Lewis's The Abolition of Man.
Works on heaven and hell. The Great Divorce
is a short novel about imagined conversations in the foothills of Heaven
between the saved and the potentially damned. The title is a reference
to William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. This work
deliberately echoes two other more famous works with a similar theme:
the Divine Comedy of Dante Aligheri, and John Bunyan's Pilgrim's
Progress. Another short novel, The Screwtape Letters, consists of
letters of advice from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew
Wormwood, on the best ways to tempt a particular human and secure his
damnation. See, Problem of Hell.
The Chronicles of Narnia. This is a series
of seven fantasy novels for children that is by far the most popular of
Lewis's works. The books have Christian themes and describe the
adventures of a group of children who visit a magical land called
Narnia. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which was the first
published and the most popular book of the series, has been adapted for
both stage and screen. The Chronicles of Narnia borrow from Greek and
Roman mythology as well as traditional English and Irish fairy tales.
Lewis reportedly based his depiction of Narnia in the novels on the
geography and scenery of the Mourne Mountains in County Down, Northern
Ireland. Lewis cited MacDonald as an influence in writing the series.
The books were published in an order different from that they take place
in. In chronological order, the seven books are: The Magician's Nephew,
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Horse and His Boy, Prince
Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and The Last
Battle. Many people feel that the books should be read in order of
publication. Lewis himself was not particular.
Non-Christian works. Lewis's last novel was
Till We Have Faces. Many believe (as he did) that it is his most mature
and masterful work of fiction, but it was never a popular success. It is
a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche from the unusual perspective
of Psyche's sister. It is deeply concerned with religious ideas, but the
setting is entirely pagan, and the connections with specific Christian
beliefs are left implicit.
Before Lewis's conversion to Christianity,
he published two books: Spirits in Bondage, a collection of poems, and
Dymer, a single narrative poem. Both were published under the pen name
of "Clive Hamilton".
Career as a writer on Christianity
In addition to his career as an English
professor and an author of novels, Lewis also wrote a number of books
about Christianity — perhaps most famously, Mere Christianity, which is
considered a classic of Christian apologetics. After some years as an
atheist, he converted to Christianity and joined the Church of England.
Although he became an Anglican, he stated that he was influenced by his
Roman Catholic friend Tolkien. He was very much interested in presenting
a reasonable case for the truth of Christianity. Mere Christianity, The
Problem of Pain, and Miracles were all concerned, to one degree or
another, with refuting popular objections to Christianity.
He has become popularly known as The
Apostle to the Sceptics because he originally approached religious
belief as a sceptic, and he was converted by the evidence. Consequently,
his books on Christianity examine common difficulties in accepting
Christianity, such as "How could a good God allow pain to exist in the
world?", which he examined in detail in The Problem of Pain.
Lewis also wrote an autobiography entitled
Surprised by Joy, which describes his conversion. (It was written before
he met his wife, Joy Gresham.) His essays and public speeches on
Christian belief, many of which were collected in God in the Dock and
The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses, remain popular today for their
insights into faith.
His most famous works, the Chronicles of
Narnia, contain many strong Christian messages. These are often mistaken
for allegory, but, as Lewis himself said, are certainly not allegory.
Lewis is said to have stated that he wrote the novels when he wondered
what it would be like if Jesus Christ was incarnated on another world or
planet to save the souls of those inhabitants.
Trilemma
The term "trilemma" actually comes from
Christian apologist Josh McDowell, who based it on one of Lewis's
best-known arguments in favor of Christianity from his book Mere
Christianity.
According to the argument, most people are
willing to accept Jesus Christ as a great moral teacher, but the Gospels
record that Jesus made many claims to divinity, either explicitly ("I
and the father are one." — John 10:30*) or implicitly, by assuming
authority only God could have ("…the Son of Man has authority on earth
to forgive sins…" — Matthew 9:6*). Assuming that the Gospels are
accurate, Lewis said there are three options:
Jesus was telling falsehoods and knew it,
and so he was a liar.
Jesus was telling falsehoods but believed
he was telling the truth, and so he was insane.
Jesus was telling the truth, and so he was
divine.
Thus, Lewis maintained that one cannot
argue Jesus was merely a great moral teacher because his moral teachings
would be invalidated by virtue of either his lying or his insanity. On
the other hand, if he was divine, he must clearly be more than merely a
great moral teacher.
* Quotes are from the New International
Version of the Bible.
Portrayals of Lewis' life
Recently there has been some interest in
biographical material concerning Lewis. This has resulted in several
biographies (including books written by close friends of Lewis, among
them Roger Lancelyn Green and George Sayer), at least one play about his
life, and a 1993 movie, titled Shadowlands, based on an original stage
and television play. The movie fictionalizes his relationship with an
American writer, Joy Gresham, whom he met and married in London, only to
watch her die slowly from bone cancer. Lewis's book A Grief Observed
describes his experience of bereavement in such a raw and personal
fashion that Lewis originally released it under the pseudonym "N. W.
Clerk" to keep readers from associating the book with him (ultimately
too many friends recommended the book to Lewis as a method for dealing
with his own grief, and he made his authorship public).
Lewis's death and legacy
Lewis died on November 22, 1963, at the
Oxford home he shared with his brother, Warren. He is buried in the
Headington Quarry Churchyard, Oxford, England. Media coverage of his
death was overshadowed by news of the assassination of President John F.
Kennedy, which occurred on the same day, as did the death of author
Aldous Huxley. (This coincidence was the inspiration for Peter Kreeft’s
book Between Heaven and Hell: A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death with John
F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis & Aldous Huxley. In this philosophical work, the
three men meet in a limbo before the afterlife, and debate the divinity
of Jesus Christ, contrasting the differences in their personalities and
world views — humanism, Christianity, and pantheism.)
A bronze statue of Lewis looking into a
wardrobe stands in Belfast's Holywood Arches.
Many books have been inspired by Lewis,
including A Severe Mercy by his correspondent Sheldon Vanauken. The
Chronicles Of Narnia has been particularly influential. Modern
children's authors like Daniel Handler (A Series of Unfortunate Events)
and Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl) have been influenced more or less by
Lewis's series. JK Rowling has said that the name of Cedric Diggory (a
character in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) is an homage to Digory
Kirke (a character in Lewis's Narnia books, most especially The
Magician's Nephew). Authors of adult fantasy literature such as Tim
Powers have also testified to being influenced by Lewis's work.
Most of Lewis's posthumous work has been
edited by his literary executor, Walter Hooper. An independent Lewis
scholar, the late Kathryn Lindskoog, argued in several books that
Hooper's scholarship is not reliable and that he has made false
statements and attributed forged works to Lewis. (See The Dark Tower.)
Scholars in the field of Lewis studies are divided over whether these
charges have been settled at all, and if so in whose favor.
Bibliography
Nonfiction
The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval
Tradition (1936)
Rehabilitations and other essays (1939) —
with two essays not included in Essay Collection (2000)
The Personal Heresy: A Controversy (with E.
M. W. Tillyard, 1939)
The Problem of Pain (1940])
A Preface to Paradise Lost (1942)
The Abolition of Man (1943)
Miracles: A Preliminary Study (1947,
revised 1960)
Arthurian Torso (1948; on Charles
Willliams' poetry)
Mere Christianity (1952; based on radio
talks of 1941-1944)
English Literature in the Sixteenth Century
Excluding Drama (1954)
Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early
Life (1955; autobiography)
Reflections on the Psalms (1958)
The Four Loves (1960)
Studies in Words (1960)
An Experiment in Criticism (1961)
A Grief Observed (1961; first published
under the pseudonym "N. W. Clerk")
The Discarded Image: An Introduction to
Medieval and Renaissance Literature (1964)
God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and
Ethics (1970), = Undeceptions (1971) — all included in Essay Collection
(2000)
Studies in Medieval and Renaissance
Literature (1966) — not included in Essay Collection (2000)
Spenser's Images of Life (ed. Alastair
Fowler, 1967)
Letters to an American Lady (1967)
Selected Literary Essays (1969) — not
included in Essay Collection (2000)
Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer
(1972)
Of Other Worlds (1982; essays) — with one
essay not included in Essay Collection
All My Road Before Me: The Diary of C. S.
Lewis 1922–27 (1993)
Essay Collection: Literature, Philosophy
and Short Stories (2000)
Essay Collection: Faith, Christianity and
the Church (2000)
Collected Letters, Vol. I: Family Letters
1905-1931 (2000)
Collected Letters, Vol. II: Books,
Broadcasts and War 1931-1949 (2004)
Fiction
The Pilgrim's Regress (1933)
Space Trilogy
Out of the Silent Planet (1938)
Perelandra (1943)
That Hideous Strength (1946)
The Screwtape Letters (1942)
The Great Divorce (1945)
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
Prince Caspian (1951)
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
The Silver Chair (1953)
The Horse and His Boy (1954)
The Magician's Nephew (1955)
The Last Battle (1956)
Till We Have Faces (1956)
Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer
(1963)
The Dark Tower and other stories (1977)
Boxen: The Imaginary World of the Young C.
S. Lewis (ed. Walter Hooper, 1985)
Poetry
Spirits in Bondage (1919)
Dymer (1926)
Narrative Poems (ed. Walter Hooper, 1969;
includes Dymer)
The Collected Poems of C. S. Lewis (ed.
Walter Hooper, 1994; includes Spirits in Bondage)
Books about C. S. Lewis
Chad Walsh, C. S. Lewis: Apostle to the
Skeptics. Macmillan, 1949.
Clyde S. Kilby, The Christian World of C.
S. Lewis. Eerdmans, 1964.
Jocelyn Gibb (ed.), Light on C. S. Lewis.
Geoffrey Bles, 1965.
Joe R. Christopher & Joan K. Ostling, C. S.
Lewis: An Annotated Checklist of Writings about him and his Works. Kent
State University Press, n.d. (1972). ISBN 0873381386
Humphrey Carpenter, The Inklings: C. S.
Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and their friends. George
Allen & Unwin, 1978. ISBN 0048090115
Chad Walsh, The Literary Legacy of C. S.
Lewis. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979. ISBN 0156527855.
Walter Hooper, Through Joy and Beyond: A
Pictorial Biography of C. S. Lewis. Macmillan, 1982. ISBN 0025536702
John Beversluis, C. S. Lewis and the Search
for Rational Religion. Eerdmans, 1985. ISBN 0802800467
George Sayer, Jack: C. S. Lewis and His
Times. Macmillan, 1988. ISBN 0333433629
G. B. Tennyson (ed.), Owen Barfield on C.S.
Lewis. Wesleyan University Press, 1989. ISBN 081955233X.
A. N. Wilson, C. S. Lewis: A Biography. W.
W. Norton, 1990. ISBN 0393323404
James T. Como, C. S. Lewis at the Breakfast
Table and Other Reminiscences. New edition, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
1992. ISBN 0156232073
George Watson (ed.), Critical Essays on C.
S. Lewis. Scolar Press, 1992. ISBN 085957853
Susan Lowenberg, C. S. Lewis: A Reference
Guide 1972-1988. Hall & Co., 1993. ISBN 0816118469
Kathryn Lindskoog, Light in the
Shadowlands: Protecting the Real C. S. Lewis. Multnomah Pub., 1994. ISBN
0880706953
Michael Coren, The Man Who Created Narnia:
The Story of C.S. Lewis. Eerdmans Pub Co, Reprint edition 1996. ISBN
0802838227
Walter Hooper, C. S. Lewis: A Companion and
Guide. HarperCollins, 1996. ISBN 0006278000
Jeffrey D. Schultz and John G. West, Jr.
(eds.), The C.S. Lewis Readers' Encyclopedia. Zondervan Publishing
House, 1998. ISBN 0310215382
James Como, Branches to Heaven: The
Geniuses of C. S. Lewis, Spence, 1998.
Roger Lancelyn Green & Walter Hooper, C. S.
Lewis: A Biography. Fully revised & expanded edition. HarperCollins,
2002. ISBN 0006281648
Joseph Pearce, C. S. Lewis and the Catholic
Church. Ignatius Press, 2003. ISBN 0898709792
Bruce L. Edwards, Not a Tame Lion: The
Spiritual World of Narnia. Tyndale. 2005. Up and Further In:
Understanding C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Broadman and Holman, 2005.
Bruce L. Edwards, Further Up and Further
In: Understanding C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Broadman and Holman, 2005.
James T. Como, Remembering C. S. Lewis (3rd
ed. of C. S. Lewis at the Breakfast Table), . Ignatius, 2006
****
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