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

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СКАЧАТЬ sincerely,

      C. S. Lewis

      

      TO MRS D. JESSUP (W):

      Magdalen College,

      Oxford. Oct 15/1953

      Dear Mrs. Jessup

      It is a very long time since any letters passed between us. I am in fact in your debt, counting it strict ‘turn-about’, but I regarded your last letter as an answer–certainly not a question, for I think it contained none!

      But you have not all this time been absent from my daily prayers. I have been very heavily worked, except for a holiday in Ireland, and I have not been very well: nothing serious, only the harmless complaint which is called sinusitis, which gives pain and rather ‘gets you down’, but nothing worse. I hope you are well and happy (as happiness goes with mortals like us–I know you are on earth, not in heaven!). Some time, where you have nothing urgent to do, write me a line to say how you go on. This of mine of course calls for no answer: it is only a little wave of the flag to show you I’m still here and never unmindful even when I’m silent.

      Yours sincerely

      C. S. Lewis

      

       TO ARTHUR GREEVES (BOD):

      Magdalen College

      Oxford Oct 17/53

      My dear Arthur

I wonder are you allowing for the fact that in the Heir²⁰³ one of the main characters is, and is meant to be, a horrible prig, and the other a man who believes himself to be under (almost) a hereditary curse? This justifies dramatically in both a degree of introspection which may not at all be C. M. Yonge’s idea of normal Christian life. Mrs Edmonstone (clearly a good woman) does not show the same trait, nor does Amy.

      I shall of course be perfectly happy to spend our joint holiday in the Inn at C’burn this year, if it so falls out. If you are in England I think you might find a few nights in the College guest room not unendurable and I’d try to give you breakfast as late as the servants cd. be expected to bear. (There are, however, clocks that chime the quarters all over Oxford; perhaps that wd. be fatal.)

I’ll send you W’s book²⁰⁴ as soon as it is out. I think you’ll like it. V. difficult to write to Gundred about J.F.’s death, wasn’t it.²⁰⁵

      This has been the most exquisitely beautiful autumn I can remember.

      Yours

      Jack

      

       TO GEOFFREY BLES (BOD):

      Magdalen College

      Oxford Oct 20th 53

      My dear Bles

How stupid of me not to see that our old friend ‘out of the frying pan into the fire’ becomes nonsense when converted into ‘better the frying pan than the fire’. I’m glad you pointed it out. And I can’t think of any good substitute wh. cd. be fitted into the same number of spaces. So dele.²⁰⁶

The Phillips one is v. curious, because surely the argument at that point in Hebrews does precisely identify ‘man’ in the psalms with ‘the Man’, Our Lord.²⁰⁷

      I am of course delighted at all you tell me about M.C. Very over-driven at present. We’re both well: kindest regards to both of you.

      Yours

      C. S. Lewis

      

       TO I. O. EVANS (W):

      Magdalen

      Oct 25th 53

      Dear Evans

      I return the cuttings. I enjoyed them all, but the phrase-book items were the cream. And not only because you had good raw material: the showmanship was just right. I quite agree that when it comes to absurdity nature beats art: there’s nothing in the lists of imaginary ‘howlers’ as funny as things I have really seen when examining. You will hardly believe the following but we had it offered in the college entrance exam: ‘In any controversy half the people generally side with the majority and half with the minority’

I have no brief against co-education. I am, in principle, inclined (having no school-mastering experience I wd. not go further than an inclination either way) to approve it. But just as fine printing (in itself a delightful thing) has in fact got itself mixed up with pornography, so co-education has in fact got itself mixed up with crank schools, take Dartington Hall.²⁰⁸ I didn’t make Experiment House²⁰⁹ cranky because it was co-ed: I made it co-ed because it was cranky.

I must look up A. G. Pym:²¹⁰ can’t remember if I’ve read it or not. With all good wishes.

      Yours

      C. S. Lewis

      

       TO MARY NEYLAN (T):

      Magdalen College

      Oxford Nov 5/53

Alas, it couldn’t come at a worse time. I’m at it all day trying to finish the Bibliography (odious job) of my big OHEL book against time, in between tutorials: usually my day allows no leisure between 8.30 a.m. & 9.45 p.m. So I must hope to meet Sarah another time. Thanks pro orationibus.²¹¹ The sinus is not yet anything like so bad as it was last winter. Blessings on all—

      C.S.L.

      

       TO MARY VAN DEUSEN (W):

      Magdalen College

      Oxford Nov 5/53

      Dear Mrs. Van Deusen

      This must be a hasty scrawl as I’m working against time at present & usually have no free moment between 8.30 a.m. & 9.45 p.m.

So glad to hear all your good news. About CSR²¹² I’m the last person to give an opinion. I am so much the reverse of the type that ‘joins things’ or ‘gets things up’ that I’d be no fair judge even if I knew the parish and the people. Of course it all depends what the latter are really like! On that СКАЧАТЬ