C.S. Lewis A biography of friendship In memory of David Porter C.S. Lewis 1945–2005 A biography of friendship COLIN DURIEZ Text copyright © 2013 Colin Duriez copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. 1926; This edition copyright © 2013 Lion Hudson pp. 160–61: Extracts from The Allegory of Love The right of Colin Duriez to be identified by C. S. Lewis copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Contents as the author of this work has been asserted Ltd. 1936; pp. 165–66: Extract from That by him in accordance with the Copyright, Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis copyright © Designs and Patents Act 1988. C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. 1945; p. 167: Extract from The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis All rights reserved. No part of this copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. 1943, PREFACE 7 publication may be reproduced or 1946, 1978. Reprinted by permission of The transmitted in any form or by any means, C. S. Lewis Company. electronic or mechanical, including pp. 42, 90, 92–93: Extracts from Owen 1. A NORTHERN IRISH CHILDHOOD 11 photocopy, recording, or any information Barfield on C. S. Lewis storage and retrieval system, without edited by G. B. permission in writing from the publisher. Tennyson copyright © Owen Barfield, 2006. Originally published by The Barfield Press; 2. SCHOOLDAYS AND ARTHUR GREEVES: Published by Lion Books pp. 88, 217: Extracts from Light on C. S. Lewis WATFORD, BELFAST, AND MALVERN 28 an imprint of edited by Jocelyn Gibb, 1965. Originally Lion Hudson plc published by Geoffrey Bles. Reprinted by Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Road, permission of Owen Barfield. 3. “THE GREAT KNOCK”: BooKHAM, Oxford OX2 8DR, England pp. 43, 69, 116, 125, 134, 145, 162, www.lionhudson.com/lion 181, 212, 222: Extracts from C. S. Lewis: SURREY 43 ISBN 978 0 7459 5587 2 A Biography by Roger Lancelyn Green and e-ISBN 978 0 7459 5725 8 Walter Hooper copyright © Green and 4. OXFORD AND FRANCe: “THIS IS WHAT First edition 2013 Hooper, 1988. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. WAR IS LIKe…” 56 Picture Acknowledgments pp. 43, 77, 80: Extracts from C. S. Lewis: p. i (top and bottom); p. iii (centre and A Biography by A. N. Wilson copyright © bottom); p. x (centre left); p. viii (top right): A. N. Wilson, 2005. Reprinted by permission 5. STUDENT DAYS: OXFORD, AND Used by permission of The Marion E. Wade of Aitken Alexander. MRS JANIE MOORE 71 Centre, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL pp. 92, 185: Extracts from C. S. Lewis at the p. ii (top right); p. ii (bottom left): Copyright Breakfast Table and Other Reminiscences edited Northern Ireland Tourist Board 2010 by James T. Como copyright © James T. 6. THE ASPIRING POET AND SCHOLAR IN p. vi: Copyright AmandaLewis/iStockphoto.com Como, 1980. Originally published by Simon All other images: Copyright Colin Duriez and Schuster, reprinted by permission of HARD TIMES: THE INSPIRATION OF OWEN James T. Como. BARFIELD 83 Text Acknowledgments p. 156: Extract from “Against the Stream: Every effort has been made to trace the C. S. Lewis and the Literary Scene” by Harry original copyright holders where required. Blamires in Journal of the Irish Christian Study 7. THE YOUNG DON: MEETING In some cases this has proved impossible. Centre copyright © Harry Blamires, 1983. We shall be happy to correct any such Reprinted by permission of Harry Blamires. J.R.R. TOLKIEN 101 omissions in future editions. pp. 161–62: Extract from The Place of the Lion pp. 15, 17, 27, 30, 38, 39, 150, 151, 191: by Charles Williams copyright © Charles 8. THE MOST RELUCTANT CONVERT 117 Extracts from The Diaries of Warren Lewis Williams, 1931; p. 176: Extract from The copyright © The Marion E. Wade Center, House by the Stable by Charles Williams Wheaton College, Wheaton Illinois. copyright © Charles Williams. Reprinted by 9. THE COMPANY OF FRIENDS 135 pp. 16, 31, 42, 48, 77, 91, 95–96, 108, 115, permission of David Higham. 120, 121, 125, 135–36, 177: Extracts from Surprised by Joy by C. S. Lewis copyright © A catalogue record for this book is available 10. STORYTELLING AND REFLECTIONS: C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. 1955; pp. 22–23: from the British Library Extract from Boxen by C. S. Lewis copyright Printed and bound in the UK, March 2013, THROUGH THE CHANGING THIRTIES © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. 1985; p. 29: Extract LH26 WITH TOLKIEN 151 from The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. 1955; p. 68: Extract from Dymer by C. S. Lewis 11. THE WARTIME YEARS AND AFTER: Preface ENTER CHARLES WILLIAMS 168 12. A NEW ERA AND A CHANGE OF STRATEGY: THE NARNIA FACTOR 187 An Oxford student of C.S. Lewis’s told J.R.R. Tolkien that he 13. THE SURPRISING AMERICAN: found his new tutor interesting. Tolkien responded: “Interesting? MRS JOY DAVIDMAN GRESHAM 202 Yes, he’s certainly that. You’ll never get to the bottom of him.” There is a proverb in a number of languages that goes like this: 14. LEAVING THE SHADOWLANDS 216 “Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are.” You can learn a great deal about people by their friends – the A BRIEF CHRONOLOGY 222 company they keep – and nowhere is this more true than in the case of C.S. Lewis, the remarkable academic, author, popularizer NOTES 228 of faith, and creator of Narnia. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 241 Throughout Lewis’s life, key relationships mattered deeply to him, from his early days in the north of Ireland and his schooldays INDEX 248 in England, as a teenager in the trenches of the First World War, and then later in Oxford. The friendships he cultivated throughout his life proved to be vital, influencing his thoughts, his beliefs, and his writings. My biography of Lewis focuses on some of his most important friendships, including members of the literary group associated with him, the Inklings. Along with the places and events of his life, as well as his writings, these friendships help us to understand just who C.S. Lewis was. What did Arthur Greeves, for instance, a lifelong friend from his adolescence, bring to him? How did J.R.R. Tolkien, and the other members of the now famous Inklings, shape him? Why, in his early twenties, did he share a home with a single mother twice his age, Janie Moore, looking after her for so many years until her death? And why did he choose to marry so late? What of the relationship with his alcoholic and gifted brother, who joined his unusual household? C.S. Lewis was, in many ways, a remarkable enigma, as Tolkien intimated to the student. He guarded his inner life, yet attracted 8 C.S. LEWIS PREFACE 9 his readers by his friendly, warm, and open tone. Even in his copies of W.H. Lewis’s manuscripts with the Bodleian. Scholars erudite scholarship, the reader feels they are being treated as an and others knowledgeable of C.S. Lewis to whom I’m indebted equal with whom Lewis’s insights into ancient poets and writers are too numerous to mention, but I must especially acknowledge are being shared. Lewis appears to assume you are a fellow previous biographers Roger Lancelyn Green, Walter Hooper, learner, but wears his knowledge lightly. He does not intimidate, A.N. Wilson, George Sayer, Alan Jacobs, Douglas Gresham, and but draws you in. As the narrator of the Narnian stories, his voice others writing from an Ulster context (David Bleakley, Ronald W. is simply like that of a kindly uncle. Bresland, and Derick Bingham). There are those too who wrote An atheist for much of his formative early life, Lewis became of Lewis’s relationship with Joy Davidman (Brian Sibley, Douglas one of the most well known of modern popularizers of the Gresham, Don W. King, and Lyle Dorsett) and the Inklings Christian faith. Yet the scope of his varied books is not limited by (Humphrey Carpenter and Diana Glyer). David C. Downing’s The age, creed, or nationality. He wrote books for children as well as Most Reluctant Convert was also invaluable, as was K.J. Gilchrist’s A for students and scholars, and successfully explored new genres Morning After War. such as science fiction and fantasy for adults. He breathed new A special note of thanks must be given to Bruce L. Edwards for life into the traditional world of theological writing, with his best- allowing me to adapt sections from my chapter in volume one of selling The Screwtape Letters, which put him on the cover of Time C.S. Lewis: Life, Works, and Legacy (Praeger Publishers), and to the magazine after the Second World War, signalling an extraordinary Paulist Press for similarly giving permission to adapt material from impact upon America that has lasted to this day. Works of his my book Tolkien and C.S. Lewis: The Gift of Friendship. Always at my literary scholarship are still in print half a century after his death, side was my The C.S. Lewis Chronicles (BlueBridge) – I must thank and he is a household name in the British Isles, mainly through his the publisher of that, my friend Jan Guerth, for persuading me to The Chronicles of Narnia. compile it some years ago. It helped me immensely in finding my My book is not aimed at the scholar, but the general reader who way through the tangled terrain of the chronology of Lewis’s life; may have read a Narnia book or two, or perhaps The Screwtape he went through three conversions (to atheism, then theism, then Letters.