Collected Letters Volume Three: Narnia, Cambridge and Joy 1950–1963. Walter Hooper

same purpose in the narrative that ‘noises off wd in a stage play.²⁰⁹ Numinor is a mis-spelling of Numenor which, like the ‘true West’, is a fragment from a vast private mythology invented by Professor J. R. R. Tolkien.²¹⁰ At the time we all hoped that a good deal of that mythology would soon become public through a romance which the Professor was then contemplating. Since then the hope has receded…²¹¹

TO PHOEBE HESKETH (W):²¹²

      Magdalen College,

      Oxford Oct 4th 1952

      Dear Miss Hesketh–

You will have given up expecting any acknowledgement of No Time for Cowards²¹³ which you so kindly sent me, and must think me no end of a curmudgeon. But you know what the alternative is—either to write a wholly perfunctory letter at once, or else to wait for that rare day and hour (it’s rarer as I get older) when one is receptive of a new book of poems. I now can really say Thank you, for I’ve got many real delights. You are a superb phrase-maker: ‘the bell-noised streams’²¹⁴ and ‘infant fists of fern’²¹⁵ on p. 8–‘Shack-Age’²¹⁶ on p. 9–‘caged in comic bars of camouflage’²¹⁷ on 39–and the really unbearable two lines about Time’s finger & the evening train on p. 81.²¹⁸Ugh! The ones I liked best as wholes (wh. aren’t necessarily the ones from which I shall remember bits to quote) are Lion’s Eye–it has a perfect shape, couldn’t be either longer or shorter–The White Roe–the extra rhyming line added to some stanzas is delightful–I Am Not Resigned (I’d love to have thought of ‘greener centuries’)²¹⁹–Strange Country, and (perhaps best of all) Second Birth. A painful book—I understand R. Church’s fears²²⁰–but then most good poetry (tho’ not the very topmost best of all like parts of Dante) is.

      I really am very glad you sent it. Remember me most kindly to dear old Herbert Palmer and accept my very best thanks, good wishes, and congratulations. Perhaps if you are ever in these parts you will come and see me.

      Yours sincerely

      C. S. Lewis

      

       TO ARTHUR GREEVES (W):

      Magdalen

      11/10/52

      My dear Arthur

      James’s Letters vol. I arrived yesterday. I don’t know if I really ought to accept it, lames being so much more your kind of author than mine. On the other hand it is too big for an envelope and putting up parcels is one of the many things I can’t do. And there seems to be a good deal about books in it after all. Well, thanks very much indeed. Yes, I love my Father’s underlinings: the pencil (can’t you see him, with his spectacles far down on his nose, getting out the little stump?) so heavily used that, as W said, he didn’t so much draw a line as dig a line.

      Term began yesterday, so I have now returned to harness after what has been perhaps the happiest year of my life. I began, appropriately, by cutting myself when I shaved, breaking my lace when I put on my shoes, and coming into College without my keys.

      There have been some most perfect autumn days here lately and this is a well timbered country which they suit.

Love to l’Incroyable²²¹ and your good self and all blessings.

      Yours

      Jack

      

       TO VERA GEBBERT (W): TS

      Magdalen College,

      Oxford. 11th October 1952.

      Dear Mrs. Gebbert,

      But hang it all, if you come on the 18th and 19th I shall see so little of you—being engaged to dine out on Saturday; and I can’t put it off because it is with people I’ve had to refuse on several other occasions. Would you think us Pigs if we adhered to the original date? Not if it means you’ll have to sleep on the Embankment of course!

      Yours sincerely,

      C. S. Lewis

      

       TO HERBERT PALMER (TEX):

      Coll. Magd.

      16/10/52

      My dear Palmer

I wrote a letter to Miss Hesketh²²² (I mean, a real one, not the mere acknowledgement) about the book²²³ some weeks ago. As Heinemann is one of those accursed firms that don’t put their address on the title page I sent it c/o their old address and it came back as a dead letter. I then sent it c/o my own publisher. Has Miss Hesketh not had it yet?

      I liked many of the poems v. much, especially the phrasing. Do let me know if the letter has ever arrived. As for helping the book, what can one do against the massive rampart of false taste in our times? That is the ‘railway line’: you and Miss Hesketh are the real unmacadamised road or immemorial Right of Way across the field. But they are stopping the Right of Way. How are you these days? It was nice to hear from you again.

      Yours

      C. S. Lewis

      

TO JOHN ROWLAND (TEX):²²⁴ PC

      Magdalen College

      Oxford 16/10/52

      Good. My Mon. evgs. are, unhappily, always filled up by the Socratic Club. The safest thing (for an unspecified week) is Lunch on Monday and as much talk as you can spare me afterwards. If you can fix which Monday I will book it. I much look forward to meeting.

      C. S. Lewis

      

       TO ARTHUR GREEVES (BOD):

      Magdalen College

      Oxford 17/10/52

      My dear Arthur

I’ve finished vol. I of the Letters of HJ. I announce this not to hurry you but to show that I have enjoyed yr. gift. I’m afraid he was a dreadful Prig, but he is by no means a bore and has lots of interesting things to say about books. Was it you sent me the Northern ‘Whig’?²²⁵ If so thanks.

      Yours

      Jack

      

      TO VERA GEBBERT (W): TS 52/103.

      Magdalen College,

      Oxford. 18th October 1952.

      Dear Mrs. Gebbert,

      What a misfortune for you,