A Mr. C. S. Lewis

Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength, by C. S. Lewis.

The first Lewis book I remember looking at was “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” in Briesemeister, and putting it back on the shelf with a shrug. I think I thought (perhaps the illustrations that gave me the impression) was that it was not as ‘advanced’ as “The Hobbit”; maybe a little too childish for me already! The first time I ever actually read a Lewis book (and you can’t really read Tolkien without hearing about Lewis and being curious) was my junior year with Mrs. Hardcastle, when I looked at “Out of the Silent Planet” in her classroom library, and that got me hooked. When I was in college and staying with Nanny, she asked me what I wanted for Christmas, and I told her the Space Trilogy, and she actually ordered it for me from Robin’s bookstore! The only truly nice personal thing I can ever remember her doing for me. “Planet” and “Perelandra” are still from that set, but “Strength” is a used replacement copy (a Collier book, the others are Macmillans) I got when the spine broke on the original. The bindings aren’t great, and when the book is fat, they get weak. The Collier is strong, but rather pink, and has the full title: “That Hideous Strength: A Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups”.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Science Fantasy. Novel. Paperback.

The Problem of Pain, by C. S. Lewis.

This was in Mrs. Hardcastle’s class as well, and you can bet I looked into it. I wasn’t quite into apologetics yet. It was that time after we had left the JW’s. While I considered myself a sort of Christian still, my true religion could probably be best described as Fantasy Literature. Lewis probably kept me from sheering off into plain pagan mysticism. As I say, I wasn’t quite into Lewis yet, but I got my secondhand copy not too long after.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Apologetics. Paperback.

Mere Christianity, Miracles, The Great Divorce, The Weight of Glory, The Abolition of Man, by C. S. Lewis.

Once getting into Lewis, I had to get all I could, and this series of Macmillan books were the ones most available through the 80’s – 90’s. “Mere Christianity” is the great one of course, and confirmed to me that Christianity could be intellectually and philosophically defended. “The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses” is subtitled “Revised and Expanded Edition”; I have 2 copies of “The Abolition of Man”; “The Great Divorce” is ‘told in the form of a dream’ and examines what is likely to lead a person to Heaven or Hell. George MacDonald appears there as Virgil to Lewis’s Dante. Since I have new, better copies of these in softcover now (except for “Abolition”), I can probably view them as lending copies.

Ranking: Keepers/Essentials.

File Code: Religion. Christian. Paperbacks.

The Screwtape Letters and Screwtape Proposes a Toast, with a new preface by the author, C. S. Lewis.

An older Macmillan, in a different format, and dedicated to J. R. R. Tolkien. Letters from an elder devil to a younger, on how to utilize the perils that beset the human soul. This is the first copy I got on my own; I previously read it in the high school library (since it was right behind the librarian’s desk, I couldn’t steal it. Providence!) Since I have a new softcover copy, available as a loaner or even a gift.

Ranking: Keeper/Essential.

File Code: Religion. Paperback.

A Grief Observed, by C. S. Lewis.

Bantam Books edition. “A Masterpiece of Rediscovered Faith.” Written in the aftermath of his wife Joy’s death and at first published anonymously. Since I have a new softcover copy, available as a loaner or even a gift.

Ranking: Keeper/Essential.

File Code: Inspirational. Religion. Paperback.

The Grand Miracle and other Selected Essays on Theology and Ethics from ‘God in the Dock’, and The Seeing Eye and other Selected Essays from ‘Christian Reflections’, by C. S. Lewis.

These Ballantine ‘Epiphany’ books are edited by Walter Hooper, Lewis’s literary executor and gatekeeper. These editions came out in the early-80’s and I eagerly snapped them up.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Religion. Anthology. Paperbacks.

Brothers and Friends: The Diaries of Major Warren Hamilton Lewis, edited by Clyde S. Kilby and Marjorie Lamp Mead.

More than “an intimate portrait of C. S. Lewis as seen through the eyes of his beloved brother”, it is a look at Warnie himself, who was a remarkable man and author in his own right. Bedeviled as he was by alcoholism and as full as he was of common humanity, he struggles through life in the wake of a more famous brother and manages to carve out his own niche in the world. For almost 50 years he kept this diary, which offers us not only a close personal look at his brother ‘Jack’ but also glimpses of the other Inklings. A lover of food and comfort, a steady scholar, and a curious mind, one gets the feeling he would have made an easy if not too close or confidential friend.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Diary. Literary History. Paperback.