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The Liberation of Spirits in Bondage

The Lewis Legacy-Issue 81, Summer 1999 The C.S. Lewis Foundation for Truth in Publishing

In 1918 Lewis wrote to his father, ‘”You are aware that for some years now I have amused myself by writing verses, and a pocket-book collection of these followed me through France. Since my return I have occupied myself by revising them, getting them typed with a few additions, and trying to publish them.” Heinemann published the 40 poems 80 years ago, on 20 March 1919.

Project Gutenberg, one of the oldest and most experienced sources of public domain e-texts, has confirmed that Spirits in Bondage is in the public domain in the U.S. and that the text will go out through them. As a public service, Mike Perry is putting it on John West’s C. S. Lewis and Public Life website, http://www.discovery.org/lewis/cslewis.html Although Lewis wrote these poems as a young atheist, some of his lifelong themes are in them. Readers, researchers, and publishers will now have free access to them at last.