The Lewis Legacy Issue 83

Ministering Angels

C. S. Lewis’s name is on the cover of David G. Hartwell’s giant anthologyThe Science Fiction Century (1997, Tor Books, 1005 pp.) and “Ministering Angels” is included with the following introduction. C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) is important both as a writer and critic of science fiction. He is indeed one of the sophisticated literary men of the century, whose scholarship Read More ›

Technology’s “Deep Magic”

Deep magic n. [poss. from C. S. Lewis’s “Narnia” books] An awesomely arcane technique central to a program or system, esp. one neither generally published nor available to hackers at large (compare black art); one that could only have been composed by a true wizard. Compiler optimization techniques and many aspects of OS design used to be deep magic; many Read More ›

The Carnegie Medal

by Perry Bramlett Many people know that C. S. Lewis’s The Last Battle won the Carnegie Medal in 1956. The Carnegie Medal has been awarded annually since 1936 for “an outstanding book for children written in English and published initially in the United Kingdom.” Note: this was changed in 1969 to any book written in English and published first or Read More ›

Source of Lewis’s Narnia?

When Lewis wrote the Chronicles, he thought he had invented the name Narnia; later he realized it was a real place in Italy. In Companion to Narnia Paul Ford lists ancient references to Narnia: “Pliny the Younger’s letter to his mother-in-law, in which he mentions the excellence of the accommodations of her villa at Narnia, especially its beautiful baths. Of Read More ›

What Did C. S. Lewis Say about Botticelli? And Who Said So?

This is the sidebar that supplements “Spring in Purgatory: Dante, Botticelli, C. S. Lewis, and a Lost Masterpiece” The Allegory of Love: a Study in Medieval Tradition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1936), p. 83. “No religion, so long as it is believed, can have that kind of beauty [the beauty of pagan gods, ‘pure aesthetic contemplation of their eternity, their remoteness, Read More ›

Cataloguing the Past: Mist That History Missed?

Ian Blakemoore is a bookdealer in Wigton, Cambria, who sells Lewis related books. His catalog has a preface by Aidan Mackey, a G. K. Chesterton specialist. Two items in the catalog are of special interest to Lewis Legacy readers. First, there is a brief article by Lesley Walmsley, who says she became an editor at William Collins publishers in 1976 Read More ›

Idealized Lewis Portrait

HISTORICAL REPRODUCTIONS12324 Big Pool RoadClear Spring, MD 21722 (301) 842-3784 HEROES OF THE FAITHProfessionally FramedBrass Engraved Name PlateArtist Grade Canvas or Quality Prints Retail Prices11 x 17 matted print $14.95 (A GOOD BUY –KL)16 x 20 matted prinlt w/glass in gold wood frame $129.0016 x 19 on Canvas, in Gold Oval Wooden Frame $149.0021 x 26 – on Canvas, in Read More ›

C. S. Lewis as Godfather: Laurence Harwood Speaks

Laurence Harwood, OBE, is the son of Cecil Harwood. a friend of Lewis and co-trustee of his estate. Lewis disapproved of Cecil’s Anthropomorphism, but that did not diminish their friendship. When Laurence was a pupil of Lewis’s, Lewis joshed Cecil about his faith in Anthropologist Rudolph Steiner’s dramatic theory of evolution: “It gives me a queer feeling when I suddenly Read More ›

Spring in Purgatory: Dante, Botticelli, C. S. Lewis, and a Lost Masterpiece

On February 7, 2000, the essay appeared as the week’s top news story on BOOKS & CULTURE Online. It will also appear in a print issue of BOOKS & CULTURE. For slightly over five hundred years, the most famous and popular illustration of Dante’s Divine Comedy has remained effectively “lost” – although millions have seen it and admired it. It Read More ›

C. S. Lewis’s Divine Comedy

C. S. Lewis beamed, then said “It’s my Cinderella.” I had just told him how much I loved The Great Divorce. (If I had been forced to choose one favorite of all his books, that would have been my choice.) He said he didn’t understand why Screwtape Letters got all the attention when The Great Divorce was so much better. Read More ›