'Warnie': Into the Archive

Inkling, Historian, Soldier, and Brother: A Life of Warren Hamilton Lewis by Don King

The first full biography of Warren Lewis, brother and secretary of C. S. Lewis (2023, 435 Pages)

Detailing the life of Warren Hamilton Lewis, author Don W. King gives us new insights into the life and mind of Warren’s famous brother, C. S. Lewis, and also demonstrates how Warren’s experiences provide an illuminating window into the events, personalities, and culture of 20th-century England. Inkling, Historian, Soldier, and Brother will appeal to those interested in C. S. Lewis and British social and cultural history.

As a career soldier, Warren served in France during the nightmare of World War I and was later posted to Sierra Leone and Shanghai. On his retirement from the army, he became an active member of the household at the Kilns, the residence outside Oxford that he co-owned with his brother and Mrs. Janie Moore, and he played an important role in the relationship between his brother and Joy Davidman, the woman who became C. S. Lewis’s wife. A talented writer and accomplished amateur historian, Warren also researched and wrote seven books on 17th-century French history.

Inkling, Historian, Soldier, and Brother examines Warren Lewis’s role as an original member of the Oxford Inklings—that now famous group of novelists, thinkers, clergy, poets, essayists, medical men, scholars, and friends who met regularly to drink beer; discuss books, ideas, history, and writers; and share pieces of their own writing for feedback from the group.

Drawing from Warren Lewis’s unpublished diaries, his letters, the memoir he wrote about his family, and other primary materials, this biography is an engaging story of a fascinating life, period of history, and of the warm and loving relationship between Warren and his brother, which lasted throughout their lives. – Amazon.

I ordered it on April 4th, and it arrived on the 9^th; I had not expected it until the 14^th. It is the first new book I’ve bought since February 21^st, so that’s a sort of record for me lately. The first time I became aware of it on Amazon, it was $50; but it finally came down enough for me not to feel guilty about ordering it: $24.87. It is in pristine condition, but being from a university press it is in teeny-tiny, eye-straining typeset. I opened it to discover that it had been signed by the author, Don King (no, not the one who might first spring to mind), and so joins my little collection of autographed copies. Just the name, no inscription.

Warnie has always interested me as being what you might call an ‘ordinary’ adjunct to the Inklings circle, though as this biography points out, that might only be in comparison to such titans as C. S. and Tolkien. Quite extraordinary in his own right, a published author in a time when merely being ‘Jack’s’ brother would have cut very little ice. Though of course it is mainly the Inkling connection that draws me to his biography now.