The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings (98 page)

“kicked a few ideas around”: Joy Gresham to William Gresham, quoted in Hooper,
C. S. Lewis: A Complete Guide,
247.

“when they are preparing”: C. S. Lewis,
Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
(San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, 1984), 97.

“every nice, affectionate”: Lewis,
Collected Letters
, vol. 3, 590.

“I know now”: Lewis,
Till We Have Faces
, 308.

“Most reviewers”: Hooper,
C. S. Lewis: A Complete Guide
, 262.

“mumbo-jumbo”: T. H. White,
Time and Tide
37 (October 13, 1956): 1227–28.

libel risk: Lewis,
Collected Letters
, vol. 3, 581.

“partly in answer”: Lewis, preface to
Surprised by Joy
, vii.

“long corridors”: Lewis,
Surprised by Joy
, 10.

“‘Do
you
like that?’”: Ibid., 130.

“as fascinating”: Ibid., 200.

“the most dejected”: Ibid., 228–29.

“latter stages”: Dorothy L. Sayers, “Christianity Regained,”
Time and Tide
36 (October 1, 1955): 1263.

“In a sense”: Lewis,
Surprised by Joy
, 17.

“God moves, indeed”: Norman Cornthwaite Nicholson, “Joy and Conversion,”
The Times Literary Supplement
2797 (October 7, 1955): 583.

“The limpidity of these waters”: Sayers, “Christianity Regained,” 1264.

“shimmering in the heat”: Davidman,
Out of My Bone
, 258.

“smelled marriage”: Eva Walsh, quoted in Dorsett,
And God Came In
, 128.

“it was now obvious”: W. H. Lewis,
Brothers and Friends
, 245.

“Joy, whose intentions … the gap between the end”: Ibid., 245.

“How did I get into this theology racket”: Davidman,
Out of My Bone
, 278.

“place of unearthly beauty”: Lewis,
Collected Letters
, vol. 3, 781.

“a v. fine, wild country … a ‘St. Luke’s summer’”: Ibid., 797.

“I have got something really hellish … The X-rays showed”: Davidman,
Out of My Bone
, 297.

“I never have loved her more”: W. H. Lewis,
Brothers and Friends
, 245.

“physical agony”: Davidman,
Out of My Bone
, 300.

“I am trying very hard”: Ibid., 306.

“a notable act of charity … I found it heartrending”: W. H. Lewis,
Brothers and Friends
, 246.

“a power which … Yes, in my legs”: Coghill, “Approach to English,” 63.

“gives me a wonderfully youthful figure”: Lewis,
Collected Letters
, vol. 3, 875.

“a spiritualist picture”: Ibid., 967.

“life-giving generosity”: Coghill, “Approach to English,” 63.

“One dreams of a Charles Williams substitution!”: Lewis,
Collected Letters
, vol. 3, 901.

“hardly any hope”: Ibid., 866.

“has improved”: Ibid., 884.

“the improvement in my wife’s condition”: Ibid., 894.

“almost miraculous”: Ibid., 903.

“by supposing Charles’s theory”: W. H. Lewis,
Brothers and Friends
, 232.

“My heart is breaking”: Lewis,
Collected Letters
, vol. 3, 862.

“wd. be surprised”: Ibid., 837.

“we are often … something which began in Agape”: Ibid., 884.

“naturally I shall want”: Quoted in Dorsett,
And God Came In
, 147.

“remember you as a man … If you do not relent”: Lewis,
Collected Letters
, vol. 3, 843–45.

“the center of his life”: Ladborough, “In Cambridge,” 103.

“for the unlearned”: C. S. Lewis,
Reflections on the Psalms
(New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1958), 1.

“Christians cry to God”: Ibid., 12.

“that typically Jewish prison”: Ibid., 17.

“are indebted”: Ibid., 28.

“Father of Lights … good work”: Ibid., 110.

“a little more technical equipment … only the most tenuous”: Joseph Bourke,
Blackfriars
40 (September 1959): 389–91.

“bring in nearly … Cartwheel”: C. S. Lewis Papers, Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Let. C. 220/4, fol. 28, quoted in Green and Hooper,
C. S. Lewis: A Biography
, 387.

“Today I want to discuss”: Joy Davidman, letter to Chad and Eva Walsh,
Out of My Bone
, 341.

“If people are already unlovable”: Lewis,
The Four Loves
, 41.

“hard day’s walking”: Ibid., 72.

“Love Himself”: Ibid., 128.

“vague and fluid … a novelist’s insights”: Martin D’Arcy, “These Things Called Love,”
The New York Times Book Review
(July 31, 1960): 4.

“more like resurrection”: Lewis,
Collected Letters
, vol. 3, 1000.

“drunk with blue mountains”: Ibid., 967.

“like being recaptured by the giant”: Ibid., vol. 3, 1101.

“Joy was often in pain”: Green and Hooper,
C. S. Lewis: A Biography
, 396.

“in a
nunc dimittis
frame of mind”: Lewis,
Collected Letters
, vol. 3, 1153.

“made an Amazon”: Ibid.

“Don’t get me a posh coffin”: W. H. Lewis,
Brothers and Friends
, 250.

“I shall survive, unembittered … it does often strike me as preposterous”: Owen Barfield letter, December 29, 1957, Barfield Papers, Bodleian Library, Dep. c. 1055.

“exist by virtue”: Owen Barfield,
What Coleridge Thought
(Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1971), 36.

“the subjectivity of the individual mind”: Owen Barfield, quoted in Sugerman,
Evolution of Consciousness: Studies in Polarity
, 18.

“basis of his whole way”: Barfield, quoted in ibid., 17.

“round box”: Owen Barfield,
Worlds Apart: A Dialogue of the 1960’s
(Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1971), 210.

“so exciting … Your language sometimes disgruntles”: Lewis,
Collected Letters
, vol. 3, 1328.

“recently deceased … a fascinating link”: Thomas J. Altizer, review of
Worlds Apart
,
Journal of Bible and Religion
32, no. 4 (October 1964): 384–85.

“metaphor, symbol, language, and problems of communication”: Penciled note by Barfield recounting “Origin of U.S Connection,” dated August 30, 1963, Barfield Papers, Bodleian Library, Dep. c. 1054.

“like starting a new life”: Blaxland–de Lange,
Owen Barfield
, 39.

“now about 34 years behind … wide view”: Tolkien, “Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford,” 224.

“the foundation”: Ibid., 225.

“the B.Litt. sausage-machine … the degeneration”: Ibid., 226–27.

“the
dugu
ð
”: Ibid., 240.

“vigorous … crotchety”: “Tolkien’s Farewell,”
Oxford Mail
(June 6, 1969): 4.

“in many ways a melancholy”: Tolkien,
Letters
, 300.

“I am in fact utterly stuck”: Ibid., 301.

“ponderous silliness”: Ibid., 302.

“Forgive my chattiness”: Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, quoted in Scull and Hammond,
J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Chronology
, 574.

“a very pretty book”: Quoted in Scull and Hammond,
J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Chronology
, 599.

“I do not think … of course no dragon”: Quoted in ibid., 595, 596.

“ingenious … hurrying rhythm”: Alfred Duggan, “Middle Earth Verse,”
The Times Literary Supplement
3169 (November 23, 1962): 892.

“something close to genius”: Anthony Thwaite, “Hobbitry,”
The Listener
1756 (November 22, 1962): 881.

“sagging faith … men’s hearts”: Tolkien,
Letters
, 336–37.

“Faith is an act of will … demented megalomaniac”: Ibid., 337–38.

“fell in love … the greatest reform”: Ibid., 338–40.

“plausible English pseudonym”: Quoted in Lewis,
Collected Letters
, vol. 3, 1201.

“not written with publication”: Hooper,
C. S Lewis: A Complete Guide
, 196.

“a defence … describe a
state
”: C. S. Lewis,
A Grief Observed
(New York: HarperOne, 2009), 71.

“there are a lot of things”: Lewis,
Collected Letters
, vol. 3, 1174.

“For those few years”: Lewis,
Grief Observed
, 19–20.

“appall”: Ibid., 29.

“the most precious gift”: Ibid., 30.

“She is, like God”: Ibid., 36.

“Cosmic Sadist”: Ibid., 43.

“an instantaneous, unanswerable impression”: Ibid., 57.

“Turned to God”: Ibid., 73.

470–71
“Him as the giver”: Ibid., 74.

“Not my idea of God”: Ibid., 79.

“strange, firm magnetism … Religion—reassurance”: Sylva Norman, “Argument with Sorrow,”
The Times Literary Supplement
3115 (November 10, 1961): 803.

“easy tone … continually interesting”: William Empson, “Professor Lewis on Linguistics,”
The Times Literary Supplement
3057 (September 30, 1960): 627.

“unintelligible”: Lewis,
Collected Letters
, vol. 3, 1202.

“as a substitute”: C. S. Lewis, “Undergraduate Criticism,”
Broadsheet
(Cambridge) 8, no. 17 (March 9, 1960): [1,] quoted by Walter Hooper in Lewis,
Collected Letters
, vol. 3, 1230. Discussed in an editorial, “Professor C. S. Lewis and the English Faculty,” ibid., no. 22 (October 1960): 6–17.

“Pecksniffian disingenuousness”:
Delta: The Cambridge Literary Magazine
22 (October 1960): 6–17.

“Do not misunderstand”: Lewis, letter to the editor,
Delta: The Cambridge Literary Magazine
23 (February 1961): 4–7, reprinted in Lewis,
Collected Letters,
vol. 3, 1230–35.

“shrinking a little”: Frank Kermode, “Against Vigilants,”
New Statesman
62, 1599 (November 3, 1961): 658–59. Kermode, who had also incurred the wrath of
Scrutiny
, was impressed by the artful way in which Lewis suggests, without naming names, the particular school of critics he has in mind; moreover, Kermode says, “there is no specific mention of that dreadful Vigilant arrogance which corrupts pleasure and judgment, and which is now available in paperback…”

“Tell me the date”: C. S. Lewis,
An Experiment in Criticism
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1961, 2004), 105.

“No poem will give”: Ibid., 94.

“permits, invites”: Ibid., 104.

“an enlargement of our being … In reading great literature”: Ibid., 137–41.

“The saner and greater”: I. A. Richards,
Coleridge on Imagination
(London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Tr
ü
bner, 1934; Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1960), 171.

“not to ‘think about’”: F. R. Leavis, “Literary Criticism and Philosophy,”
The Common Pursuit
, 213.

“Professor Lewis’s own credo”: Reginald P. C. Mutter, “The Function of Criticism,”
The Times Literary Supplement
3114 (November 3, 1961): 790.

“The actual history of Eng. Lit.”: Lewis,
Collected Letters
, vol. 3, 1371.

“a perfectly sincere, disinterested, fearless, ruthless fanatic”: Ibid., 1372.

“C. S. Lewis is dead”: Leavis’s remark was recorded by D. Keith Mano, quoted in James E. Person, Jr., “The Legacy of C. S. Lewis,”
Modern Age
(Summer 1991): 409.

“whether we were his pupils”: Helen Gardner, review of
The Discarded Image
,
The Listener
1842 (July 16, 1964): 97.

“(a.) Having educated Betjeman”: Lewis,
Collected Letters
, vol. 3, 1251.

“I never liked Eliot’s poetry”: Green and Hooper,
C. S. Lewis: A Biography
, 390.

“It was a quiet morning”: Donald Swann,
Swann’s Way: A Life in Song
, quoted in Green and Hooper,
C. S. Lewis: A Biography
, 403.

“During the year … I drank from”: W. H. Lewis,
Brothers and Friends
, 252–53.

“a dipsomaniac retired major”: Lewis,
Collected Letters
, vol. 3, 1312.

“I wear a catheter”: Ibid., 1382.

If Lewis had taken a leave: See W. H. Lewis,
Brothers and Friends
, 272.

“But oh Arthur”: Lewis,
Collected Letters
, vol. 3, 1456.

“By early October”: W. H. Lewis, “Memoir of C. S. Lewis,” 45.

John F. Kennedy: Kennedy died first, being shot at 12:30 Central Time (USA) and declared dead at 1:00 p.m.; Huxley died at 5:20 Pacific Time (having received two one-hundred milligram injections of LSD during his last hours, administered by his wife, Laura Huxley); Lewis, as noted, died at about 5:30 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time in Oxford.

19. INKLINGS FIRST AND LAST

“time of close communion … So far I have felt”: Tolkien,
Letters
, 341.

“My life continues”: W. H. Lewis,
Brothers and Friends
, 254.

“SPB”: Warnie’s curious sobriquet for his brother. The letters stand for Smallpiggiebotham (Warnie was the Archpiggiebotham), nicknames ultimately derived from their childhood nurse, Lizzie Endicott. A humorous “Pigiebotian” philosophy evolved between the two brothers, devoted to studied appreciation of inactivity. See Lewis’s letter to Warnie, August 2, 1928 (Lewis,
Collected Letters
, vol. 1, 776).

“I forget quite important”: W. H. Lewis,
Brothers and Friends
, 255.

“the absolutely unforgettable”: Owen Barfield, “C. S. Lewis,”
Owen Barfield on C. S. Lewis
, 3.

“You came to him”: Owen Barfield, “Moira,”
Owen Barfield on C. S. Lewis
, 163.

“I find the prospect exciting … 2 lectures a week”: Letter, Owen Barfield to Philip Mairet, March 28, 1964, Barfield Papers, Bodleian Library, Dep. c. 1074.