Why does Lewis remain a best-selling author with a long list of popular titles? Books with Christian themes do not typically make The New York Times bestseller list. What did Lewis do that made his message so accessible? Some writers point to his liberal use of literary tropes such as metaphor and analogy. Others attribute his popularity to his clarity of expression.29 Lewis scholar Terry Lindvall suggest that one of the reasons Lewis remains popular is because of his keen sense of humor.30 Lewis loved to laugh and those who knew him attest to his jovial sense of fun and good humor that sparkles through his writing. Lewis’s popularity is most likely the result of multiple principles and practices, among which is his ability to communicate—to forge a relationship between author and reader. The chapters ahead provide a detailed, panoramic look at his ability to communicate.
Lewis did not have to wait until he died to be famous. Britons readily recognized his voice in the 1940s because of his successful broadcast talks.31 His series of 15-minute BBC radio broadcasts began on August 6, 1941, at 7:45 P.M., and continued at regular intervals for more than two years to a war-weary Britain. His first talk had an audience of 560,000 people; his second talk, a week later, had more than 1.7 million listeners—triple his first night’s broadcast.32 Although his biggest audience on a radio call-in program called Brains Trust had an audience of more than 5 million listeners, they did not hear Lewis at his best. It was one of his performances during which he gave long-winded, tedious answers, not always on point; he was not well received by many in this particular listening audience.33 ←5 | 6→But despite an occasional misstep, he consistently connected to his readers and listeners.
Lewis thought that after his death his popularity would decline and his book sales would decline as well, eventually dwindling to zero. Walter Hooper, Lewis’s secretary during the last summer of Lewis’s life, recalls a specific conversation with Lewis in which he expressed certainty his book sales would taper off after his death. Lewis was concerned about income for his brother, Warren (called “Warnie”), and worried that Warnie would have no substantial income beyond his small pension.34 But Lewis need not have worried. His book sales have continued to flourish, in part because Hooper agreed to edit an existing manuscript, resulting in a “new” book, if the publisher would also re-publish two out-of-print books.35 Because of this shrewd deal, all of Lewis’s books continue to be in print. C. S. Lewis remains famous—more so in the U.S. than where he lived and taught in England, in part because his Christian message resonates with Americans more than it does in a less demonstrably Christian England.36
Although not as widely heralded in England, Lewis was memorialized on the 50th anniversary of his death with a stone in the floor of Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.37 Chiseled on the stone is one of his most quoted sentences: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.”38 The thousands who congregated there on November 22, 2013, heard former Archbishop of Canterbury, the Right Reverend Rowan Williams, deliver a memorial sermon focused on Lewis’s skilled use of language.39
In addition to his book sales, Lewis’s popularity as a communicator is further evidenced by his continued focal point as a subject of reading groups and Lewis societies. If you want to join a Lewis reading group, there is probably one near you. By one count more than 500 Lewis societies exist in the U.S.40 The C. S. Lewis Society that meets in Oxford during term time will welcome you, should you happen to be in Oxford on a Tuesday—the day the Inklings, the famed literary group, would meet at The Eagle and Child pub just a few doors from where the Lewis Society meets in the St. Giles area of Oxford. The book C. S. Lewis & His Circle is a collection of essays presented to the society over the years, including several by people who knew Lewis well.41 Google “C. S. Lewis” and you will find numerous websites, such as Into the Wardrobe, that feature his works and provide a virtual Lewis society. Both the stage play Shadowlands and the 1993 movie chronicle the intriguing love story between Lewis and the woman he married (twice),42 Joy Davidman, bringing the Lewis-Davidman story to millions. Several of Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; The Voyage of the Dawn ←6 | 7→Treader; Prince Caspian; and The Silver Chair) have been made into movies (with varying critical acclaim). Yet The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe set box office records when it debuted in 2005; with world-wide box office receipts of more than one billion dollars, it is the highest grossing Christian-themed movie ever made. More Narnia movies are in the works, as well as a movie chronicling the friendship of Lewis and Tolkien.43
Students are eager to learn from Lewis’s ideas. One of the most popular courses at Harvard University, taught by Dr. Armand Nicholi, examines the dramatically contrasting life philosophies of Lewis and Psychologist Sigmund Freud. Nicholi’s best-selling book A Question of God and the nationally broadcast PBS special and DVD of the same name brought an examination of Lewis’s ideas to millions of readers and viewers.44 The creatively conceived play Freud’s Last Session imagines a conversation between Lewis and Freud in 1939—late in Freud’s life and just when Lewis was coming into his own as a writer. The crackling dialogue may be fiction (although there are direct quotations from both men’s writings), but the play is a riveting and insightful drama that enjoyed positive reviews and broke box office records in New York and several U.S. national tours. The Most Reluctant Convert, a one-man play about Lewis’s conversion starring Max McClean as Lewis, toured the U.S. and appeared on Broadway in New York to packed houses for months. Lewis’s ideas and his life story continue to generate interest in various forms—from traditional academic classes to Broadway performances.
What additional evidence documents Lewis’s popularity? His readers’ responses. In his book An Experiment in Criticism, Lewis suggests that among the best ways to assess a literary work is to consider the impact the work has on those who read it. The impact of Lewis’s own body of written and spoken communication, based on the responses of his readers, has been significant. Lewis’s work has inspired institutes, societies, and artistic projects. Three C. S. Lewis academic institutes specifically feature his work and champion his legacy. The C. S. Lewis Foundation, based in Redlands, California, which owns Lewis’s home, The Kilns, in Oxford, is actively working to establish a C. S. Lewis liberal arts college. The proposed college would be based on a Great Books foundation to mirror Lewis’s wide-ranging knowledge in and application of the liberal arts and sciences.
And finally, C. S. Lewis has become a ubiquitous presence in American pulpits. In summarizing Lewis’s impact, one could argue that he is the third most quoted person in Sunday morning sermons, right behind Jesus and the Apostle Paul. Given his continued popularity, it is worthwhile to investigate his communication strategies that contribute to his popularity.
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