Chronologically Lewis Joel D
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Chronologically Lewis Joel D. Heck All notes are done in the present tense of the verb for consistency. Start and end dates of term are those officially listed in the Oxford calendar. An email from Robin Darwall-Smith on 11/26/2008 explains the discrepancies between official term dates and the notes of C. S. Lewis in his diary and letters: “Term officially starts on a Thursday, but then 1st Week (out of 8) starts on the following Sunday (some might say Saturday, but it ought to be Sunday). The week in which the start of term falls is known now as „0th Week‟. I don‟t know how far back that name goes, but I‟d be surprised if it wasn‟t known in Lewis‟s day. The system at the start of term which I knew in the 1980s - and which I guess was there in Lewis‟s time too - was that the undergraduates had to be in residence by the Thursday of 0th Week; the Friday was set aside for start of term Collections (like the ones memorably described in Lewis‟s diary at Univ.!), and for meetings with one‟s tutors. Then after the weekend lectures and tutorials started in earnest on the Monday of 1st Week.” Email from Robin Darwall-Smith on 11/27/2008: “The two starts to the Oxford term actually have names. There‟s the start of term, in midweek, and then the start of „Full Term‟, on the Sunday - and is always Sunday. Lectures and tutorials start up on the following day. Now the start of term, which nowadays always falls on a Thursday, back in the 1950s and 1960s might fall on almost any day of the week, with no obvious reason why. This is what I wasn‟t expecting to find. So, according to the University Calendar, Hilary Term 1950 happened to start on the Tuesday, with Full Term starting on the Sunday. Lewis has slipped up slightly in saying that Full Term started on the Saturday, rather than the Sunday, but the confusion, you will agree, is a pretty venial one. So I guess that the best thing to say here is that Lewis was talking, rather elliptically, of the start of Full Term in Hilary Term 1950.” “On what happened in those few days between the start of term and the start of Full Term, I would imagine that Collections tended to be sat towards the end of it - more time for revising, for one thing. In any event, in my time, most people tended to come up anyway on the Sunday at the start of 0th Week - easier for parents to drop us off. I don‟t know how true this was in the 1950s, though. However, there was always plenty to do in those first days of term apart from work.” Major changes in Jack‟s life are indicated by bold print. Underlined text takes its cue from general statements Jack made at various times about the things he did regularly. For example, on June 14, 1916, Jack makes the comment that the 10:00-11:00 p.m. is the time when he normally writes to Arthur Greeves. On that date, Jack spent time with visitors to the Kirkpatrick house instead of writing to Arthur. Therefore, we extrapolate from this comment to turn Jack‟s writing time into the ten o‟clock hour. While he does not indicate the time of writing in other weeks, whenever he writes to Arthur during the Kirkpatrick era, we indicate that as 10:00 p.m. and underline the text. In a couple of places, the exact time of writing is indicated, so that time is not underlined in those cases. 1895 June 16 Sunday. Warren Hamilton Lewis is born in a semi-detached house in Dundela Villas. 1896 June 16 Tuesday. Warren celebrates his first birthday. November Albert gives Warren his first book, Mother Goose’s Nursery Rhymes, Tales and Jingles. 2 1897 June 16 Wednesday. Warren celebrates his second birthday. 1898 June 16 Thursday. Warren celebrates his third birthday. November 29 Tuesday. Clive Staples Lewis is born in a semi-detached house in Dundela Villas. 1899 June 16 Friday. Warren celebrates his fourth birthday. November 29 Wednesday. Clive celebrates his first birthday. 1900 June 16 Saturday. Warren celebrates his fifth birthday. August 6-7 Monday-Tuesday. Flora and a nurse take the two boys on a vacation to Ballycastle, County Antrim. November 29 Thursday. Clive celebrates his second birthday. 1901 January 22 Tuesday. Queen Victoria dies. June-July Flora, Warren, Clive, and Lizzie Endicott vacation at Bath Villa at the seaside resort of Castlerock. June 16 Sunday. Warren celebrates his sixth birthday. November 29 Friday. Clive celebrates his third birthday. 1902 June 16 Monday. Warren celebrates his seventh birthday. November 29 Saturday. Clive celebrates his fourth birthday. 1903 May Flora, Warren, and Clive vacation at Spar Hotel at the seaside resort of Ballynahinch, County Down. June 16 Tuesday. Warren celebrates his eighth birthday. November 29 Sunday. Jack celebrates his fifth birthday. He no longer answers to “Clive,” only to “Jack.” 3 1904 June-August Flora, Warren, and Clive vacation at Castlerock, presumably Bath Villa again. June 16 Thursday. Warren celebrates his ninth birthday. August The family home, Little Lea, is under construction. November 29 Tuesday. Jack celebrates his sixth birthday. 1905 April 21 Friday. The Lewis family moves to Little Lea.1 May 10 Wednesday. Warren enrolls at Wynyard School, Watford, Hertfordshire, England. June 16 Friday. Warren celebrates his tenth birthday. Late June Warren reads The Three Musketeers.2 September Flora, Warren, and Clive vacation at the seaside resort of Killough, County Down. November Clive writes to Warnie at Wynyard School. November 29 Wednesday. Jack celebrates his seventh birthday. 1906 Clive writes to Warnie at Wynyard School about Boxen. June 16 Saturday. Warren celebrates his eleventh birthday. June Second half of the month, Warren reads Alexandre Dumas‟s The Three Musketeers for the first time. September Flora, Warren, and Clive vacation at Castlerock. Perhaps this is the time that they visit Dunluce Castle.3 November 29 Thursday. Jack celebrates his eighth birthday. 1907 February 16 Saturday. Clive writes a short letter to Warnie. May 18 Saturday. Clive writes to Warnie about a summer trip to France and a play he is writing. June 12 Wednesday. Clive writes to Warnie about nothing. June 16 Sunday. Warren celebrates his twelfth birthday. August? Clive writes to Warnie about the History of Mouse-land. 1 It was on April 18 according to Collected Letters, I, 1 2 Brothers & Friends, 289. 3 According to Jack‟s letter to Arthur, Oct. 5, 1915, Collected Letters, I, 143. 4 Aug.-Sept. Flora, Warren, and Clive vacation at Berneval, Northern France. September 4 Wednesday. Clive writes to his father from a vacation with Warren and Flora in Pension Petit-Vallon, Berneval, Près Dieppe, in France. November 29 Friday. Jack celebrates his ninth birthday. 1908 February 12 Wednesday. Nurse A. M. Davison arrives at Little Lea to care for Flora Lewis. February 15 Saturday. Flora undergoes major cancer surgery. March 5 Thursday. Jack writes of the frost, breakfast, seeing his father off to work, Miss Harper, lessons at Latin, dinner, doing some carpentry work, and reading Paradise Lost, all at Little Lea.4 March 24 Tuesday. The father of Albert Lewis dies. April 2 Thursday. Richard Lewis, grandfather of Jack and Warren, dies. May Jack writes to Warnie about the chains memorial lighthouse at the entrance to Larne Harbour. May 20 Wednesday. Flora and Jack are at Larne Harbour for a convalescent visit. Warren is away at Wynyard school. June 15 Monday. Flora writes her last letter to Warnie to wish him a happy birthday. June 16 Tuesday. Warren celebrates his thirteenth birthday. July 8 Wednesday. Warren comes home early from Wynyard because of Flora‟s illness. August 23 Sunday. Florence Augusta Hamilton Lewis dies of cancer on Albert’s forty-fifth birthday. September 3 Thursday. Joseph Lewis, Albert‟s brother, dies. September 18 Friday. Jack starts school at Wynyard School; Warren continues at Wynyard. September 19? Saturday. Jack writes home, stating that he thinks he will like Wynyard School. September 27 Sunday. Warren is too ill to attend church, but Jack is able to go to a high Anglican church, St. John‟s Church, Watford. September 29 Tuesday. Jack writes home, stating that he can‟t stand Wynyard School. October 2 Friday. Wynyard School visits the Franco-British exhibition. October 3 Saturday. Jack writes home about the Franco-British exhibition. October 25 Sunday. Jack writes home. November 22? Sunday. Jack and others attend St. John‟s Church, Watford, where Wyn Capron, son of the Headmaster, preaches. Jack writes home. November 27 Friday. Jack writes home. November 29 Sunday. Jack celebrates his tenth birthday. December 25 Christmas Day. By this time Edith Nesbit‟s “The Aunt and Amabel” is published, which Jack reads.5 1909 4 Green and Hooper, first edition, 24. 5 Green and Hooper, 250. 5 February 21 Sunday. Jack writes home about Peckover, Reis, John Burnett, and others going home at half-term. Jack has completed the reading of H.G. Wells‟ The First Men in the Moon. February 28 Sunday. Jack writes home. May Albert, Warren, and Jack visit Dublin. June 16 Wednesday. Warren celebrates his fourteenth birthday. July 28 Wednesday. Warren is released from Wynyard School September 16 Thursday. Warren enrolls at Malvern College, Malvern, England. September 19 Sunday. Jack writes home, indicating that Oldie met him at Euston Station. November 29 Monday. Jack celebrates his eleventh birthday. December 16? Thursday.