Harry Lee Poe - C. S. Lewis Remembered: Collected Reflections of Students, Friends and Colleagues

C.S. LEWIS
REMEMBERED

ZONDERVAN

C. S. Lewis Remembered

Copyright 2006 by Harry Lee Poe

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ePub Edition January 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-55989-4

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
C. S. Lewis remembered : collected reflections of students, friends and
colleagues / Harry Lee Poe and Rebecca Whitten Poe, general editors.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-0-310-26509-2
1. Lewis, C. S. (Clive Staples), 1898 1963. 2. Lewis, C. S. (Clive Staples),
1898 1963 Friends and associates. 3. Oxford (England) Intellectual
life 20th century. 4. Teacher-student relationships England Oxford.
5. College teachers England Oxford Biography. 6. Authors,
English 20th century Biography. 7. University of Oxford
Faculty Biography. I. Poe, Harry Lee, 1950 . II. Poe, Rebecca Whitten.
PR6023.E926Z599 2006
823'.912 dc22

2006003806

Extracts by C. S. Lewis copyright C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Reprinted by permission. For permission to reprint The Establishment Must Die and Rot... , we would like to acknowledge Curtis Brown on behalf of Brian Aldiss; copyright Brian Aldiss 1964. George Watsons article The Art of Disagreement: C. S. Lewis (1898 1963) is reprinted by permission from the Hudson Review 48, no. 2 (Summer 1995). Copyright 1995 George Watson.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

06 07 08 09 10 11 12 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Sketch of C. S. Lewis by Mary Shelley Neylan. See Chapter 14,
A Goddaughters Memories, by Sarah Tisdall.
Reprinted by permission of the Edwin W. Brown Collection
at Taylor University and Sarah Tisdall, daughter of the artist.

To John Stanley Mattson,
whose vision and commitment
have led to the preservation of
The Kilns
and the establishment of
the C. S. Lewis Foundation

Contents

Owen Barfield

Walter Hooper

Derek Brewer

Peter C. Bayley

George Watson

W. Brown Patterson

Alastair Fowler

Paul Piehler

Christopher Mead Armitage

David Bleakley

Basil Mitchell

Peter Milward

Barbara Reynolds

Sarah Tisdall

Laurence Harwood, Walter Hooper, and Francis Warner

C. S. Lewis Discusses Science Fictionwith Kingsley Amis and Brian Aldiss

This is not a book of scholarship though most of the contributors have had distinguished careers as scholars. Nor is it a collection of essays by Lewis experts even though one of the contributors, Walter Hooper, has done more than anyone to make Lewiss papers, articles, and letters available to the world. Rather, this is a book of personal memories and reflections by people who knew C. S. Lewis mostly as a teacher.

I first thought a book of this sort should be written when I heard Francis Warner and Barbara Reynolds, at the C. S. Lewis Summer Institute in 1998, recounting their experiences with Lewis in Cambridge when they were young. Then in 2002, as I listened to Emrys Jones, who had held the prestigious Goldsmiths Professorship of English Literature at Oxford, evaluate Lewis as a teacher and scholar, I knew someone needed to collect reflections of Lewis as a teacher.

Most people know C. S. Lewis only through his writings, as well they should. His books have had an impact on the lives of millions. I know of many who owe their conversions to faith in Christ to Lewiss writings. But Lewis was not a professional writer. He was a teacher. And as I listened to Jones, I wondered how much influence Lewis had really had in that capacity. What had happened to his students? Was he continuing to have an influence through those students? What sort of teachers did Lewis produce?

This book represents my efforts to find the answer to these questions. It is not an exhaustive answer, but it is a highly suggestive one.

At first I thought others should collect these essays. The beginnings of this collection came in 1988 when Stan Mattson invited Owen Barfield, George Sayer, and Walter Hooper to speak at the first C. S. Lewis Summer Institute sponsored by the C. S. Lewis Foundation. Conducted in residence at St. Hildas College, Oxford, the first summer institute took as its theme The Christian in the Contemporary University. In founding the C. S. Lewis Foundation, Stan Mattson was concerned to encourage a renaissance of Christian scholarship and artistic expression throughout the mainstream of contemporary higher education. The foundation was not formed as a C. S. Lewis veneration society. Rather, it took its inspiration from the life and legacy of C. S. Lewis in the matter of how to live and work as a vital Christian in higher education. Lewis provides the model for Christians who want to make a significant contribution in the academy.

In that first C. S. Lewis Summer Institute, Kim Gilnett and Walter Hooper interviewed Owen Barfield, who had known Lewis from the time of Lewiss return to Oxford after World War I. The transcript of that interview is the opening chapter of this book. Though Barfield had played an important role in Lewiss shift from atheism to belief that God must exist, Barfield was not himself an orthodox Christian. As Lewis became a leading voice of the Christian faith in the English-speaking world, Barfield became a leading proponent of anthroposophy. When Lewis came to faith in Christ, he and Barfield remained close friends despite the theological divide that separated them. After Lewiss death Barfield served as the advisor to Lewiss literary estate. In his conversation with Gilnett and Hooper, Barfield introduces the man who was his friend. Several fine biographies provide the accurate details of Lewiss life, details that Barfield makes no pretense to recall with accuracy, but Barfield offers the impressions of a long friendship with Lewis.

Following Barfield, Walter Hooper presents a different perspective on Lewis. If Barfield was among Lewiss first friends in Oxford, Hooper was certainly one of his last. Walter Hooper did not study with Lewis, and yet Lewis had a profound impact on the young graduate student from America. Lewis took the time to meet him and encourage him. In turn, Hooper took the time to help Lewis with the secretarial duties that Warren, Lewiss brother, normally performed. In another of those bits of irony, Hooper has spent his life completing those secretarial duties as he deserves the credit for collecting the short essays and letters of Lewis to make them available in edited volumes. Barfield and Hooper provide the frame for the essays that follow.