FACT OF THE DAY:
On Stories: and Other Essays on Literature was initially published on June 24th in 1982.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“We act from duty in the hope that someday we shall do the same acts freely and delightfully.”
The Novels of Charles Williams
(Published in On Stories on 6/25/1982)
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QUIZ OF THE DAY:
Complete the quote and name the source (3 words):
“You can’t _____ _____ _____ while your eyes are blurred with tears.”
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(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)
Highlights for the final third of June (22nd – 30th) include: Sharing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with his close friends four months before it was published, being awarded an honorary Doctorate of Divinity and more talk from Screwtape about the “law of Undulation.”
As you may recall, Lewis met frequently with a group of friends called the Inklings. They gathered at a variety of places, but on the 22nd in 1950 it happened to be at the Eagle and Child. When they came together at this location it was unusual for them to actually read any of their works. Nevertheless, this was a special occasion, as Lewis brought the galley proofs of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Highlights for the final third of May (22nd – 31st) include: A prize-winning essay, his first Christian book that was his only true allegory and a Pentecost sermon.
Lewis’s first book after becoming a Christian was very different in several ways than his two previous works. Those initial titles were poetry, while The Pilgrim’s Regress: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason and Romanticism, publishedon the 25th in 1933 was his debut prose effort. Additionally, the story was pure allegory. Interestingly, it was such a difficult read that Lewis himself even admitted it and ten years after its release he wrote a preface to explain his approach to the story.
FACT OF THE DAY:
Found in On Stories, “On Three Ways of Writing for Children” was first a talk given on this day (4/29) in 1952.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”
On Three Ways of Writing for Children
(Talk given on 4/29/1952)
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QUIZ OF THE DAY:
Something occurred this month that also happen less than a year later for the second time in Lewis’s life: what was it?
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(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)
Highlights for the final third of April (20th – 30th) include: Publication of Perelandra, a talk “On Three Ways of Writing for Children” and Lewis’s first marriage to Joy Davidman.
Before Lewis gain fame from a series of books about a place called Narnia, he had written a trilogy that had a science fiction theme. The second of those books, Perelandra, came out on the 20th in 1943. In it we take a trip to Venus with the main character, Ransom and follow his quest to save that world from impending corruption. In the U.S. it wasn’t released until a year later on the 11th. In 1953 a paperback version came out under the title Voyage to Venus. On some occasions in his life Lewis considered this novel to be his best (this was also said of Till We Have Faces). Perelandra was dedicated “To Some Ladies at Wantage,” as in Wantage,
FACT OF THE DAY:
Lewis spoke on the BBC today (2/11) in 1949 on “The Novels of Charles Williams.” It was recorded and is also in On Stories.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“To find that one’s emotions do not ‘come to heel’ and line up as stable sentiments in permanent conformity with one’s convictions is simply the facts of being a fallen, and still imperfectly redeemed, man.”
Letter to Michael Edwardson 2/11/1960
(Published in The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III)
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QUIZ OF THE DAY:
Lewis wrote a letter in 1933 to what friend about what soon to be written famous book by what other friend?
(Click “Read More” to SEE Answer)
Highlights for the second third of February (10th – 18th) include: The concluding talk from the “What Christians Believe” BBC series, an explanation of the word “membership” in a talk to a group and the publication of a selection of Christian-themed essays.
In 1945 on the 10th Lewis gave a talk, simply called “Membership,” to the Society of St. Alban and St. Sergius in Oxford. It was also published later in the year and is now best found in The Weight of Glory. Lewis explained in his presentation that the word “membership” in the New Testament differs from the way it is used today. Instead of speaking of it in the sense of a group containing like items, the Christian meaning is close to “what we should call organs, things essentially different from, and complementary to, one another.” He also pointed out that believers are
Highlights for the first third of December (1st – 10th) include: The first book in the US collecting Lewis quotes, a collection of essays related to his profession and a book edited by Lewis focused on Charles Williams.
A Mind AwakeIn today’s world it’s not difficult to find a quote attributed to C.S. Lewis. Searching online provides a wide variety of quotations, but not all are actually things Lewis said (which will be the topic of an article I’ll be publishing in 2014). In the “old days” you had to rely on a much more reliable resource known as a book. The first of these actually came out in early 1968 in the UK, but the US version wasn’t published until this month on the 3rd in 1969. A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C.S. Lewis is actually more than a collection of quotes, as some of the selections are lengthier. Also unlike the more recent The Quotable Lewis, which is arranged in alphabetical order, A Mind Awake is divided into ten major topics that has three to five subtopics each.
Interestingly it was on Lewis’s fifty-sixth birthday (in 1954) that he gave what hard-core enthusiasts of his works often consider one of his best talks to a non-religious audience. “De Descriptione Temporum” are not words you hear every day, but they were fitting as a title for his inaugural lecture as Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English Literature at Cambridge University. The translation for this Latin title is “a description of the times.” The Internet Archive has a copy of the complete text. Later it was recorded (4/1/1955) as a radio broadcast for the BBC where the title was “The Great Divide” and aired on April 6, 1955. You can get a copy of this recording, along with other audio featuring his voice from Episcopal Marketplace.
As you might imagine, there are differences between the radio version and the actual address. If you have both you will want to listen to it and follow along the printed version to see Lewis’s ability to adapt a text to different audiences.
Highlights for the second third of November (11th – 20th) include: The American debut of Mere Christianity, an explanation of why “Fairy Stories,” and the publication of a landmark sermon.
This series has already noted at various times (including the last installment) why the material making up Mere Christianity is such a great book. While I’d used any excuse to say more, this time it is easily justified as those in the US first had the opportunity to purchase the combined book that consisted of all four BBC broadcast talks on the 11th in 1952. This is only four months later than the release in the UK. The main new material for this edition was Lewis’s preface, but the convenience of having all three short books together in one volume was invaluable. While many are aware that the book was adapted from material on the radio, fewer are familiar with any of the details behind this fact. I mentioned last time that Focus on the Family had a new radio
