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Philosopher as Capon
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17482 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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7 / 1990 |
1,990 Words |
| Author
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Herb Greer
Herb Greer is an American writer and playwright who lives in
Britain and on the Continent. |
C.S. Lewis produced a body of work that ranged from a much-admired treatise on sixteenth century literature, to novels, to a historical essay on love. He was also a kind of theological popularizer who began as an atheist and gravitated to the Church of England. His Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters were designed to bolster the faith of ordinary people after the Second World War, when the C of E was aseptic, dull, and losing members fast. But his most popular and successful work was a series of books for children that included The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Lewis lived the secure and sheltered life of a bachelor don at Oxford, incidentally coping with a large correspondence from those who had been provoked or, more often, inspired by his books. He had an efficient manner with male fans who wrote him critical letters. They would receive a standard brief reply: "Dear Sir, There may be something in what you say. Yours sincerely, C.S. Lewis." Women, on the other hand, might well be drawn into a demure and teasing flirtation-by-mail that ensured a good distance between writer and adoring fan. This did not always prevent the adoration from getting out of hand. One of Lewis' postal admirers lost her sense of proportion and had the banns read in Oxford for her marriage with him.
Another of Lewis' female readers, and American, did succeed in penetrating his coy defenses. She was Joy Davidman, a New York Jewish intellectual and former communist who had been converted to Christianity by reading Lewis' books. Her fascination with this far-away British academic helped to break up her marriage to the American writer William Lindsay Gresham and, in time, drew her to Britain, where she thrust herself into a platonic
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