About my fairy-tales, there are three published by Macmillan, New York (The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader). Local bookshops are often very unhelpful. If your friend wants these books she shd., of course, write to the publisher at New York.
I expect there is a photo of me somewhere, but my brother, who knows where things are, is away and I couldn’t find it today. Ask me again at a more favourable hour!-if you still have the fancy for this v. undecorative object.
I’d sooner pray for God’s mercy than for His justice on my friends, my enemies, and myself. With all good wishes.
Yours sincerely
C. S. Lewis
TO MARGARET DENEKE (BOD):
Magdalen College
Oxford 18/4/53
Dear Miss Deneke
I do not see what I could put in a preface except a dilution of what I have already sent you: and that wd. be no good.117
The next step is to try the old device of publishing by subscription. We’ll all subscribe of course and it will go hard but we’ll raise over £48. A List of subscribers gives a fine 18th. century air to a book, too. What wd. Mr. Johnson (whose advice is much more valuable than mine) say to this.
My brother would join me in good wishes if he were not away.
Yours very sincerely
C. S. Lewis
TO GEOFFREY BLES (BOD):
Magdalen College
Oxford 22/4/53
My dear Bles
A priori I shd. have thought that a series which doesn’t sell too well once a year wd. sell worse if the tempo was speeded up: but I presume you think otherwise and of course your opinion on such a point is much more informed than mine. Of course, then, do exactly as you think fit. No author, on general grounds, ever thinks his book appears too soon!
Was it and his Boy or and its Boy?. I’m completely neutral on the point: print which you prefer.
Yours
C. S. Lewis
Your correspondence has contained no Latin verse for a long time!
TO SHELDON VANAUKEN (BOD):
Magdalen College
Oxford 22/4/53
Dear Mr. Van Auken
It was very nice to hear from you. I hope my interest in you both is something less blasphemous than that of a Creator in a creature (it wd. anyway be begetting not creating, see Philemon 10).118 My feeling about people in whose conversion I have been allowed to play a part is always mixed with awe and even fear: such as a boy might feel on first being allowed to fire a rifle. The disproportion between his puny finger on the trigger and the thunder & lightning wh. follow is alarming. And the seriousness with which the other party takes my words always raises the doubt whether I have taken them seriously enough myself. By writing the things I write, you see, one especially qualifies for being hereafter ‘condemned out of one’s mouth’.119 Think of me as a fellow-patient in the same hospital who, having been admitted a little earlier, cd. give some advice.
The semi-Christians (in dog-collars) that you speak of are a great trial. Our College chaplain is rather of that kind. I’m glad you have something better in your own church.
I feel an amused recognition when you describe those moments at wh. one feels ‘How cd. I–I, of all people–ever have come to believe this cock & bull story’ I think they will do us no harm. Aren’t they just the reverse side of one’s just recognition that the truth is amazing? Our fathers were more familiar with the opposite danger of taking it all for granted: which is probably just as bad.
God bless you both: you are always in my prayers. I hope we may meet again one day.
Yours
C. S. Lewis
TO NATHAN COMFORT STARR (W): TS
Magdalen College,
Oxford. 25th April 1953.
Dear Starr,
By all means give Masato Hori an introduction,120 but don’t give him the illusion that I’m a mystic or an authority on mysticism. Dozens of things in your letter are exciting, but this is the first day of term. In haste. We both send greetings.
Yours,
C. S. Lewis
TO I. O. EVANS (W):
Magdalen College
Oxford 27/4/53
Dear Evans
I am really very sorry. The Devil you Say121 got put on a pile of ‘books received’-most of them (I don’t include yours) a major plague of my life–and I forgot all about it. I have now read a few pages: there was nothing to tempt one to go on. It certainly seems to be a gross plagiarism: I am writing to New York Macmillan to draw their attention to it. Thanks v. much for sending it. With all good wishes, and thanks also to your American friend.
Yours
C. S. Lewis
TO MARY WILLIS SHELBURNE (W): TS
54/53.
Magdalen College, Oxford. 9th May 1953.
Dear Mrs. Shelburne,
There’s very little time today, so I must be short. I am afraid it is certainly true in England that Christians are in the minority. But remember, the change from, say, thirty years ago, consists largely in the fact that nominal Christianity has died out, so that only those who really believe now profess. The old conventional church-going of semi-believers or almost total unbelievers is a thing of the past. Whether the real thing is rarer than it was would be hard to say. Fewer children are brought up to it: but adult conversions are very frequent.
I’m so glad to hear you have had a more satisfactory talk with your daughter.
I enclose a copy of the only photo which I have at the moment; it’s only a passport one I’m afraid.
Yours most sincerely
C. S. Lewis
TO GEOFFREY BLES (BOD): TS
28/53.
Magdalen College, Oxford. 9th May 1953.
My dear Bles,
Cunning man, you don’t say how long the MS is! If it can be read in a week-end and put up in a large envelope (I’m no good at parcels), I’ll read it. But I have honestly neither