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Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) - Page 4

Page 4

Mar 1, 2001

In the fall of 1914, Jack became a student of his father's old headmaster and his brother's most recent teacher, William T. Kirkpatrick, from whom he learned a method of logic that he was to employ against Christianity for a long time, and for Christianity after he became a believer. By the close of the year, Jack was confirmed, not because of his beliefs in any form of Christianity, but because he didn't have courage to tell his emotionally estranged father that he wasn't a believer.

In 1916, at age eighteen, he became acquainted with George MacDonald's books. It was not particularly a literary experience, as MacDonald's books were not especially well written and were difficult to read. Regardless, something in them released Jack's bottled-up emotions about his mother's death, for which he had never been allowed to grieve in the stiff-upper-lip boys' school surroundings.

Kirkpatrick and Jack's father determined that Jack was to become a literary man and an advocate–lawyer. This came to pass, but not in the way that Kirkpatrick or Albert expected. Jack's skills as an advocate were eventually to be used in the area of Christian apologetics; his literary skills created countless works of criticism, essays, science fiction and children's stories.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS

Hooper, Walter, "Through Joy and Beyond, a Pictorial Biography of C. S. Lewis." 1982.

Lewis, C. S., "Surprised by Joy, the shape of My Early Life." 1955.

Sibley, Brian, "C. S. Lewis Through the Shadowlands." 1985.

Wilson, A. N., "C. S. Lewis, a Biography." 1990.

WEB SITES

Of the huge number of sites I found on the web about C. S. Lewis, I was amazed at how few touched on his life. Most were about his books, his philosophy, or his religion. So I have rated them in this context, rather than in my usual context of biography.

http://ic.net/~erasmus/RAZ26.HTM C. S. Lewis: 20th-Century Christian Knight (5 stars) An impressive collection of links to photographs, bibliographies, articles about Lewis, and many other related topids.

http://cslewis.drzeus.net/ Into the Wardrobe, the C. S. Lewis Website (5 stars) Another impressive collection of links with a daily quote of C. S. Lewis', biographies, literary works, an index of Lewis' papers, picture albums, personal anecdotes and more.

http://www.discovery.org/lewis/ C. S. Lewis and Public Life (4 stars) A collection of essays about Lewis, a quarterly journal that explores the multi-faceted legacy of C.S. Lewis, and some of his public domain writings.

http://members.aol.com/thompsonja/cslewi... The Bible and C. S. Lewis (4 stars) A brief overview of Lewis' life, a study guide of Lewis' beliefs, and other topics related to Lewis that do not seem to be in any of the other sites.

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2. Sep 16, 2001 5:23 AM
I have always enjoyed reading C.S. Lewis, everything from the Chronicles of Narnia to the space trilogy.

I've been fascinated by his relationship with Tolkien and his path to Christianity, about wh ...

-- posted by aggie80

1. Apr 18, 2001 7:19 PM
I find this most interesting. Sounds like it was a really vibrant household - never a dull moment!

-- posted by jerrib

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