LETTERS OF C S LEWIS

Amazon should have zero responsibility in assisting long-term Prime members with receiving timely delivery. Although I haven't received this item yet, it was written by C. S. Lewis, so I know that it's excellent.

Almost by definition, the private letters of an honest person (which even before his conversion Lewis certainly was) are at least as rich a source of information and insight as any diary. It was on this basis that my late husband and I bought and eagerly studied the first attempt at a published collection of his correspondence, that of his brother W.H. Lewis. I have had the original hardback edition since it was new. My copy is considerably battered with use. Much new Lewis material, epistolary and not, has been unearthed and reproduced since, but the freshness of 'Warnie's' Introduction remains unsurpassed. It explained certain features of my three letters from Lewis which are still in my possession, two of them handwritten and from Magdalene College, Cambridge, one typewritten by Major Lewis and sent from The Kilns. I was an undergraduate reading the Classical Tripos at the time, and was charged with inviting him to give a paper in College and in due course entertained him to dinner.Of this I wrote to my parents early in 1973, “We got the Letters of C.S. Lewis some time back, and agree that it’s v. remarkable. Supplements Surprised by Joy, which really stops too long ago. Our only peeve is that Major Lewis, obviously knowing no Greek, did not resort to someone who did.” It was closely followed by Letters to an American Lady, on which my verdict was, “Talking of Lewis letters, you remember that I have three of my own? They are only business letters, of course, and one was typed by his brother; but people here find them enthralling. Showing them has begun to be part of the routine when we entertain. Some are still unaware that he is gone. His death was quite overshadowed by that other, surely less significant, death in November 1963, when we were with you at Irchester for Christmas. The sense that he is still writing is fostered by the regular appearance of unpublished stuff. Talking of which, I must send you Letters to an American Lady. Ever so useful here, because her mentality was so west-coasty. The character emerges quite clearly, although there is scarcely anything by her in the whole book. Obviously she got money out of him. My friend Nan Dunbar, the Mods. Tutor at Somerville . . . has told me that she was visited in California by someone from his executors, and found to be living in extremely comfortable circumstances!” (Quoted in fictionalised form in my spiritual autobiography O Love How Deep.) Then in 1988 came the post-‘Warnie’ revised and enlarged Fontana edition which I also own and have studied with care. The current edition is what I am posting about now.There are 675 pages including more letters and a much improved and more serviceable index compared even with the second edition. It is a tour de force of industry and care. Very many slips of presentation, including misspellings, which marred even the second edition, have been spotted and eliminated. The print is larger, hence a different layout with a greater number of pages. Its compendious nature, coupled with the index, makes it an indispensable source of Lewis’ experience and opinions even for the general reader. Particularly poignant to me are those relatively few letters sent after he was widowed in the summer of 1960, and up to and including the eve of his death. He was still writing and caring for people with all his might even so late in the day. Want to know his counsel on writing well, or writing for children? That and so much else is here, in his pellucid English, spiced with quotation and allusion in plenty of other languages living and dead.In something so long, when the original writer was so supremely learned in his field as well as generally well-read, there will be slips. (I am sometimes surprised nowadays by the condition in which books come out even from the ancient Press of my Alma Mater.) I have not been able to identify any introduced by Walter Hooper; but some older cases have been missed even in this latest text. My dear Father (1907-1979, St. Paul’s in London, Classics & Theology at Cambridge), who started Latin at seven and Greek at 10, used to say that with a Cambridge First in Classics one could learn anything. He was wrong; but as myself a trained Latinist and Hellenist I have seen a couple of points that ideally would be smoothed away. I am in process of incorporating these into an up-to-date Errata file which I hope may be used in some subsequent printing. Once or twice my sense is that I need to see the original to be certain that Lewis did or did not write exactly that; but several of the slips, including wrong Greek, cannot be his. Please anyone who spots anything untoward add a note here for the edification of all of us!

Me encantó. El papel es denso, suave y se ve que es de calidad. Viene con esta forma de corte en el canto, que muchas personas creen que es error de imprenta, pero en realidad es el estilo. En lo personal me gusta muchísimo. Sobre el contenido, C.S Lewis siempre es excelente.

C.S. Lewis’ life was filled with learning, imagination and wisdom, and all three show very strongly in his letters. If any reader is interested in subjects such as Christianity from the standpoint of inteligencia this book is for you. He also gives some invaluable pointers for those learning to write! Wonderful book!

I admire C.S. Lewis so much that when I saw that a collection of his letters was available, I bought it. This collection has 2 editors as I recall - for sure, one of them was his older brother. By the time I was finished, I felt like I knew C.S. Lewis much better than I had before - and I've read several of his books plus the Narnia series. The book is long at 600 plus pages, but I truly enjoyed every page. My only complaint is that the footnotes are in tiny print. I solved this problem with my handy lighted magnifier by my side.