Appendix D: Notes on Sources and Method

“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”

— 1 Thessalonians 5:21, KJV

About This Work

This book is an independent biography written by Ochorus. It is not published by, affiliated with, or endorsed by the C. S. Lewis estate, or by any publisher, company or organisation that holds rights in the writings of C. S. Lewis. Lewis’s books, letters and other writings remain in copyright, and they should be obtained from their publishers or borrowed from a library. Readers are warmly encouraged to do so.

The book tells his life in its own words. It quotes Lewis directly only three times, each in a single short sentence from a published book:

Surprised by Joy (1955), chapter 14. His description of himself, on the night he acknowledged God, as “the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.”

Surprised by Joy (1955), chapter 15. His account of the ride to Whipsnade: “When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did.”

A Grief Observed (1961), opening sentence. “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.”

Everything else attributed to Lewis, whether from his books, his letters or the memories of others, is paraphrased. The only other words quoted are those of Scripture and one line of Shakespeare, from King Lear, which is in the public domain. No letter, poem or story of Lewis’s is reproduced, and the plots of his stories are mentioned only in a sentence where the life requires it.

Primary Sources

Lewis’s own account of his early life is Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life (1955). His diary for 1922 to 1927 was published as All My Road Before Me (1991). His letters were collected and edited by Walter Hooper as The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis (three volumes, 2000 to 2006), and his letters to Arthur Greeves had earlier appeared as They Stand Together (1979). Warren Lewis’s memoir of his brother was printed in Letters of C. S. Lewis (1966), and a selection from his diaries was published as Brothers and Friends (1982). Joy Davidman’s letters were collected in Out of My Bone (2009). Her account of her conversion appeared in the collection These Found the Way (1951).

Biographies and Studies

This book is particularly indebted to the following, which readers who want to go further will find rewarding:

Roger Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper, C. S. Lewis: A Biography (1974; revised 2002). The first full life, written by two friends.

George Sayer, Jack: C. S. Lewis and His Times (1988; revised 1994). The portrait of a former pupil and close friend.

Alan Jacobs, The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis (2005). A sympathetic study of the man and his imagination.

Alister McGrath, C. S. Lewis: A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet (2013). A biography based on a fresh reading of the letters, which revised the date of his conversion to theism.

Philip and Carol Zaleski, The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings (2015). Lewis among Tolkien, Barfield and Williams.

Also consulted: A. N. Wilson, C. S. Lewis: A Biography (1990); Lyle W. Dorsett, And God Came In (1983) and Abigail Santamaria, Joy: Poet, Seeker, and the Woman Who Captivated C. S. Lewis (2015), on Joy Davidman; Douglas Gresham, Lenten Lands (1988), a stepson’s memoir; and Humphrey Carpenter, The Inklings (1978).

Corrections and Disputed Points

The date of his conversion to theism. Lewis gave the summer term of 1929. This book follows McGrath and most later scholars in preferring the summer of 1930, which places it after his father’s death, while noting that some still defend 1929.

The ride to Whipsnade. Most accounts date it to 28 September 1931, nine days after the night on Addison’s Walk. A few give an earlier date in the same month.

Janie Moore. Whether Lewis and Mrs Moore were lovers in the early years is disputed. Wilson and McGrath think it likely, and Sayer came to think so; Hooper and others denied it. Lewis never explained the relationship, and no document settles it. This book does not claim to know.

The Anscombe debate. The story that Lewis was so humiliated by Elizabeth Anscombe in 1948 that he gave up apologetics is not supported by the evidence. He revised the chapter she criticised and went on writing Christian books of many kinds; Anscombe herself rejected the legend.

The marriage. Films and plays, especially Shadowlands, have changed the ages of Joy’s sons, left one of them out, and invented scenes. The account here follows the letters, Warnie’s diaries and the biographies.

Quotations attributed to Lewis. Many sayings circulated under his name are not his. Readers who wish to quote him should check the words against his own books.

The Library He Loved

Lewis believed that every reader should go back to the old books, and many of the writers who shaped his faith are in the public domain and in the Ochorus library. Athanasius’s On the Incarnation was a book he loved and commended to others. Augustine’s Confessions is the great ancestor of every story of a reluctant convert, including his own. John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress gave him the pattern for his first Christian book. Thomas à Kempis’s The Imitation of Christ was among the devotional books he read for years. And William Law’s A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life was a book he valued for its searching seriousness. All of these can be read freely on Ochorus, alongside the companion volume Key Teachings of C. S. Lewis.

Scripture

All Scripture quotations are from the Authorised (King James) Version, which is in the public domain.