Tuesday, December 07, 2004

C.S. Lewis, A life by Michael White

C.S. Lewis, whose advice to avoid discarding any of your writings no matter how trivial they seem I've taken to heart for years, apparently had his older brother Warren burn a substantial bundle of his own papers after his death. Among the papers were believed to be unfinished manuscripts of novels, personal letters, and essays. Biographer Michael White states that among the letters were correspondence between Lewis and Janie Moore, the mother of one of Lewis's wartime buddies. In a strange relationship, Lewis and Moore fell for each other after Paddy (Lewis's friend and son of Janie) died in the Great War. Lewis was 19 and Janie 45 when they first met.

One beef I have with this biography is that it seems White quotes or refers to Lewis's autobiography on nearly every other page. Makes White's account seem rather extraneous- like I should just go and read Surprised by Joy. Oh, well.

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