A Well of Wonder. Clyde S. Kilby

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      2016 First Printing

       A Well of Wonder: Essays on C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and The Inklings

      Copyright © 2016 by Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois

      ISBN 978-1-61261-862-3

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

      Names: Kilby, Clyde S., author. | Wilkinson, Loren, editor.

      Title: A well of wonder : essays on C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Inklings / Clyde S. Kilby ; edited by Loren Wilkinson and Keith Call.

      Description: Brewster MA : Paraclete Press Inc., 2016.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2016035753 | ISBN 9781612618623 (volume 1 : hard cover)

      Subjects: LCSH: Christianity. | Theology. | Christian literature. | Christianity and literature. | Lewis, C. S. (Clive Staples), 1898-1963. | Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel), 1892-1973. | Inklings (Group of writers)

      Classification: LCC BR96 .K43 2016 | DDC 230.092/241—dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016035753

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in an electronic 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.

      Published by Paraclete Press

      Brewster, Massachusetts, and Barga, Italy

       www.paracletepress.com

      Printed in the United States of America

       A Tribute to Clyde S. Kilby

      It is a time when apples ripen,

      friendships thicken,

      maples kindle a fall fire

      west of Blanchard. Through the halls

      scholars and students quicken

      at a familiar voice,

      and on the corner of Washington and Jefferson

      squirrels and sparrows rejoice

      because you’re home. Like a hobbit

      come back to the Shire

      you’re home again, our friend,

      bringing Martha with you, and sunflower

      seeds, a sackful of nuts, three score

      years and ten worth of wisdom, under

      your arm—letters and Lewis-lore—

      your mind a well of wonder.

      It was your mind, your inner eye, that

      saw it long before it happened—

      the hierarchy of shelves

      dusted obliquely by the late sun

      behind old glass in the narrow room once occupied

      by a minority of one

      and now inhabited by Inklings and Elves.

      Like a gardener raking grass,

      piling the bright and varied leaves,

      from far you gathered treasure, sheaves

      of manuscripts, papers ornamented

      with the rich, crabbed, English script,

      searched out the volumes

      burnished and precious with

      scholarship and age—

      “fact shrunk to truth” speaking

      from every page.

      Then you swung open for us all

      the wardrobe door,

      pushed us farther up and farther in

      (accompanied by some favorite talking beast)

      to Middle-earth, Narnia, and the Utter East.

      In there, for us to re-explore,

      is perfect Perelandra.

      Treebeard is growing up the cornered wall.

      In the Deep Space behind the rows of books

      eldila elude us; Curdie

      encounters Mr. Bultitude the bear.

      There in that room

      we smell the past, untainted by decay or death

      but fragrant, for in there

      the mallorns bloom

      and all the blessed air

      is warm with Aslan’s breath.

       —Luci Shaw

       Introduction