Collected Letters Volume Three: Narnia, Cambridge and Joy 1950–1963. Walter Hooper

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СКАЧАТЬ the Last Chronide⁴⁸ I think all the London parts (the ‘Bayswater Romance’) a bore and now always skip them. But I think the Crawley parts splendid.

      I am wondering how your date with Tchainie went? Give her my love. Blessings.

      Yours

      Jack

      

       TO SHELDON VANAUKEN (BOD): PC

      Magdalen College

      Oxford 15/3/52

      Excellent. I’ll be (D.V.) in the Eastgate about 12 noon on Sat. March 22 d.

      C.S.L.

      

      TO GENIA GOELZ (L/P):

      Magdalen College,

      Oxford. 18 March 1952

      Dear Genia

Don’t bother at all about that question of a person being ‘made a Christian’ by baptism. It is only the usual trouble about words being used in more than one sense. Thus we might say a man ‘became a soldier’ the moment that he joined the army. But his instructors might say six months later ‘I think we have made a soldier of him’. Both usages are quite definable, only one wants to know which is being used in a given sentence. The Bible itself gives us one short prayer which is suitable for all who are struggling with the beliefs and doctrines. It is: ‘Lord I believe, help Thou my unbelief.’⁴⁹ Would something of this sort be any good?: Almighty God, who art the father of lights and who hast promised by thy dear Son that all who do thy will shall know thy doctrine:⁵⁰ give me grace so to live that by daily obedience I daily increase in faith and in the understanding of thy Holy Word, through lesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

      Yours

      C. S. Lewis

      

       TO VERA MATHEWS (W):

      Magdalen etc.

      22/3/52

      Dear Miss Mathews

      I was glad to get your letter. I seem to be as ignorant of America as you are of India. I had no idea your parsons preached Hell-fire: indeed I thought the ordinary presentation of Christianity with you was quite as milk-and-watery as with us, if not more so. We could do with a bit more Hell fire over here.

      Clearly I misunderstood Cobham. I hadn’t thought of a wholly unregenerate man being levitated simply by someone else’s sanctity—tho’ of course we all hope this will happen to ourselves. Thanks for a picture of two charming creatures. I am glad to have one of them among my correspondents and wish Andy would write too: but I suppose that’s not much in his line. They sound as if they were animals with a sense of humour. Shall we see some more literary works by you? I hope you’ll go on. With very good wishes from us both.

      Yours

      C. S. Lewis

      

       TO ROGER LANCELYN GREEN (BOD):

      Magdalen College

      Oxford 24/3/52

      My dear Roger–

I have re-read The Luck⁵¹ and liked it very much. I felt, as I had felt at the first reading, that tho’ it could not have the quality you and I most prize in a story, yet it had a freshness, a real feel of wet wood & spring days wh. make it more than a mere treasure hunt. It is also extremely exciting. As luck wd. have it I met a lady who was looking for things to ‘read to the children’ & the Luck is now on her list. I think she’s a buyer too, not a library addict.

Now for Logistics. I see that the Beaumaris jaunt must be on my backward journey as, on the outward, it wd. be in the midst of the Aug. bank-holiday period.⁵²1 propose to sail from Belfast to L’pool⁵³ on the night of Sept. Mon. 8th. Can we meet, say at Woodside ferry landing stage on the morning of the 9th & lie that night at Beaumaris. I shall be alone and, if quite convenient wd. gladly accept a night’s lodging chez vous on Wed. 10th, setting out for Oxford the first convenient train on Thurs. 11th. But I trust you to tell me if this is in the least a nuisance, for I can be perfectly well housed in Woodside Hotel. My duty to June. Good hunting.

      Yours

      Jack

      

TO SHELDON VANAUKEN:⁵⁴ PC

      Magdalen College

      Oxford 24 March 1952

      Porcus sum, I am a pig, porcissimus, the piggest of pigs. I looked at my diary at about 3 o’clock on Sat. afternoon and found to my horror that I had failed a tryst with you at 12. Please forgive a nit-wit. Will you prove your charity by meeting me at the Eastgate 12 o’clock next Saturday? Even I seldom make exactly the same howler twice! I really am very sorry: I had been much looking forward to it.

      C.S.L.

      

TO MICHAEL IRWIN (P): ⁵⁵

      Magdalen College,

      Oxford 25th March 1952

      Dear Michael

      Thank you very much for your nice letter. I am very glad you liked the Narnian books. Yes–there is another one already written but you won’t be able to get it till next November: they are printing it at present, and printing takes a long time, especially for a book that has pictures in it.

      Lucy and Edmund and Caspian and Reepicheep (but not Peter and Susan, who are now getting a bit too old) all come into the new one. They get into the Narnian world and all go to sea and have a long voyage: it is called The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

I wonder what other books you like. Do you like E. Nesbitt’s The Phoenix and the Carpet, and The Amulet,⁵⁶ and Tolkien’s The Hobbit,⁵⁷ and MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblins and Curdy and the Princess?.⁵⁸ I think all these are very good. Please thank your father for writing to me. Love to all.

      Yours

      C. СКАЧАТЬ