About C.S.

Lewis

C.S. Lewis, known as Jack to his friends, is now regarded as one of the most
important and influential literary and Christian figures of the twentieth century. He
was born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1898, the son of a successful but stern father and a
loving mother. He had one brother, Warnie, who became a well-known historian
and remained Lewis’s companion through much of the course of his life.
When Lewis was 10, his mother died as a result of cancer. This early tragedy
scarred him, and he began to doubt the love of a God who would ignore his
childish prayers for her survival. After her death, he was sent to a boarding school
with an eccentric headmaster who was later declared insane. His education then
consisted of various prep schools and terms with private tutors. During this time,
he was awakened intellectually, but he came to completely cast off any remnants
of his religious upbringing and to consider himself an atheist.
He entered Oxford University, but World War I soon interrupted his plans.
He enlisted in the British Army and trained as an officer. By his nineteenth
birthday, he was serving on the front lines in France, facing some of the most
ghastly battles of the war. His former Oxford roommate, Paddy Moore, was killed
in the conflict after having elicited a promise from Lewis to care for his mother and
sister in the event of his death. After the war, Lewis returned to England and
fulfilled that request for many years until the death of Mrs. Moore, often at great
personal and financial sacrifice.
Lewis returned to Oxford in 1919 and eventually earned 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. He was a brilliant scholar
and was reputed to have a nearly photographic memory with almost total recall
for everything he ever read. In 1925, he was elected as a Fellow of the Magdalen
College in Oxford, where he served as a tutor in English Language and Literature
for 29 years before taking a position at Cambridge, where he served until shortly
before his death.
 In 1929, the tide began to turn for him spiritually. He admitted the existence
of God and became a theist, though he still did not accept Christianity. It was not
until 1931, after a conversation with friends and colleagues J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo
Dyson that Lewis came to accept the sacrifice of Christ in atoning for his sins. He
marked his conversion from this time period and recounts the experience in his
partial autobiography Surprised by Joy.
In 1933, Lewis and Tolkien began an informal gathering of friends and
writers called the Inklings. These friends, including others such as Charles Williams
and Hugo Dyson, met semi-regularly at a pub called the Eagle and Child and shared
ideas and works of literature with one another. It was in this setting that many of
both Lewis’s and Tolkien’s best-known works were born and nurtured. Both
Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia and Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings were among
works read aloud to this group as they were produced. According to Lewis’s
biographer and stepson, Douglas Gresham, these meetings were characterized by
laughter and good-natured criticism of one another’s works that served to refine
the literary efforts of the participants.
Lewis went on to write many books in the realm of lay theology and became
a popular Christian writer, lecturer, and radio personality. His keen apologetics in
defense of Christianity earned him many enemies as well as innumerable friends.
He had a clear, insightful way of delivering truth that has made him one of the
most quoted men of his generation.
Lewis did not marry until 1956, when he married a woman 17 years his
junior in controversial circumstances. Joy Davidman Gresham was a renowned
American poet and writer in her own right. The two had struck up a friendship
through literary correspondence initiated by Joy, who had converted from
Communism to Christianity largely as a result of reading Lewis’s works. After her
divorce from an unfaithful husband, Joy assumed her maiden name and moved to
England with her two young sons, where her friendship with Lewis grew. In 1956,
Lewis married her in a civil ceremony as an act of friendship to prevent her
deportation from England. That same year, it was discovered that Joy had cancer
and doctors did not expect her to survive. C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman were again
married at her hospital bedside—this time in a ceremony performed in accordance
with the rites of the Church of England.
 Unexpectedly, Joy’s cancer went into a period of remission for a few years.
Lewis learned to love Joy as the wife he had never expected to have, and the two
enjoyed a brief time of companionship before cancer claimed her life in 1960. Joy
was only 45 at the time of her death. Their amazing love story has been recounted
on stage and screen in the work Shadowlands and to some extent in Lewis’s own
work A Grief Observed. After Joy’s death, Lewis assumed the care of Joy’s two
sons, David and Douglas, though they never took his name. As Douglas Gresham
explains, Lewis felt that the boys should keep the Gresham name to honor the
father whom God had given them. Their natural father committed suicide shortly
after the death of Joy Davidman Lewis.
Lewis’s own health began to decline dramatically after the death of his wife.
He died in 1963, just one week before his sixty-fifth birthday. His death occurred
on November 22, the same day as the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Though
his life was cut short, his influence remains in the many writings he left behind and
in the land of Narnia, which he opened before our eyes.
About the Chronicles of Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of books that C.S. Lewis wrote as a

“fairy-tale for children” because he felt that the children’s tale genre suited the
story he wanted to tell. Though the stories are often referred to as allegories
(stories in which persons or objects represent other things beyond the surface
meaning of the story), they are not complete allegories in the true sense of the
word (though some allegorical elements certainly exist within them). Lewis
intended them more to be “supposals.” Suppose, he thought, a world existed
where Talking Beasts roamed the land and the characters of mythology really
sprang to life? Suppose Evil entered that world? Suppose the Son of God ruled that
world? What form would He take? How would He reveal His character? Lewis’s
“supposals” are contained in The Chronicles of Narnia. Through these stories, we
gain a fresh vision of human nature and the interactions of a just yet loving God
with the created beings of His world.
The Chronicles of Narnia consists of seven books:
The Magician’s Nephew—Though this was not the first book written, it is the first
in the chronology of Narnia. Lewis later expressed a wish that this book would be
placed first in collections of The Chronicles of Narnia, and some more recent
collections honor that wish. The Magician’s Nephew recounts the adventures of
Digory and his friend Polly, who get swept up in the odd adventures of Digory’s
power-hungry and mad uncle, a magician of sorts who discovers an awesome
secret. In the course of these adventures, the two children find themselves
witnessing the creation of Narnia and the entrance of Evil into the infant world.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe—This was the first book written and
remains the most popular of all of the Narnian Chronicles. Because of this (and
other reasons), it was also chosen as the first to be made into the new film version.
Many people still prefer to read this book first. The Lion, the Witch, and the
Wardrobe recounts the adventures of the four Pevensie children who are visiting
the home of Digory (now a grown man and a Professor) and discover a portal to
the realm of Narnia.
The Horse and His Boy—The third book relates adventures of a Talking Horse
named Bree and his boy (named Shasta) who live in Narnia during the reign of
Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy. If you want to know how the children came to
rule Narnia, read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. If you want to know what
happens to Bree and Shasta, read this book. There are very interesting girl
characters in this book as well (both human and horse).
Prince Caspian—The four Pevensie children are plucked from our world and sent
back to Narnia to aid Prince Caspian and attempt to save the kingdom from grave
danger. They find that much time has passed in Narnia, things have changed
considerably, and they themselves have passed into legend.
At a recent conference I attended with Co-Producer Douglas Gresham, he hinted
that if the first Narnia movie proved successful, the second one made would likely
be Prince Caspian. This is largely because it contains many of the same characters
as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and child actors do not remain child
actors long.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader—In this tale, Edmund and Lucy are again sent
back to Narnia. This time they are accompanied by their bratty cousin, who is
called Eustace Clarence Scrubb (and almost deserves it). While in Narnia, they take
an epic sea voyage with Prince Caspian and his crew and encounter strange and
marvelous adventures on the way. The wonderful images and tremendous lessons
of this book make it well worth the literary voyage.
The Silver Chair—This time, Eustace and his new friend Jill are plucked from the
terrors of their boarding school and sent to Narnia to face even greater dangers.
The two are given a seemingly impossible task: to find the bewitched son of King
Caspian and restore him to Narnia before it is too late. In the course of the quest,
they learn more about themselves as well.
The Last Battle—A poignant ending to a truly remarkable series, The Last Battle
tells of several of the Friends of Narnia returning to help in her greatest hour of
need. By the end, the Friends learn more about the nature of both Narnia and our
own world and discover even greater wonders. I don’t want to spoil the ending,
but a great battle is in there somewhere.
Activities for The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
As you read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, you can do the following
activities with your children. These are just a few of the possible activities.
History:
“Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.
This story is about something that happened to them when they were sent away
from London during the war because of the air-raids.”
—The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, chapter one
Why Were the Children Away from Home?
During World War II, England was faced with war on its doorstep. The
advent of fighter planes and bombers meant that civilians were not safe at home
while soldiers fought England’s enemies in France, Germany, and beyond,
especially since part of the strategy of the German army was to attack civilians and
thus weaken the morale of Germany’s opponents. When England became engaged
in the war, this danger was known, and heavy causalities were predicted among
the civilian population, particularly in London. As the center of government and
the most populous English city, London was often targeted for attack. Though the
civilian loss of life was not as great as originally predicted, it was still quite heavy.
On September 1, 1939, two days before war was declared in England, efforts
began to evacuate over 1 million children from London and the more populous
areas of England. Many were sent to live with relatives or with foster families in
the countryside, in Cornwall, and in Scotland. More than 16,000 were sent
overseas, though some of these children died in enemy attacks en route. Despite
the efforts at evacuation, the war took its ghastly toll. More than one in ten air raid
victims were children under the age of 16. Official estimates place the child death
toll during the war at 7,736. In addition, 7,622 were seriously wounded in the
attacks. Including adults, more than 60,595 civilians were killed by enemy action in
Great Britain during the war, with another 86,182 seriously injured.
The fictitious Pevensie children (Pevensie is Lucy, Susan, Edmund, and
Peter’s surname) were placed with an eccentric but wise professor who lived in a
large house in the country. According to Douglas Gresham, C.S. Lewis himself
harbored some children during the war effort. In fact, the Professor Digory
character (who appears in several Narnian tales) shares many characteristics with
Lewis himself.
The study of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe may be a good
opportunity to learn more about the terrible events that surrounded World War II.
Perhaps it will even give your children a new perspective on how thankful they
should be for our present (though tenuous) level of security. The links below
provide good starting places to learn more about the role of children in England
during this terrible conflict. If you wish to see another film that depicts this, you
may want to rent the recent film version of Five Children and It based on the
fantasy classic by E. Nesbit. Though in the book version the children are not
evacuated, the film adaptation makes use of this element as part of the plot and
gives another touching portrait of the fears and discomforts that the evacuated
children endured.
Internet Links:
The Evacuation of Children During World War II
(lots of pictures—great site!)
The Children’s War (a BBC site)
Excerpts from How We Lived Then: A History of Everyday Life During the Second
World War