David J. Theroux, the Founder and President of the C. S. Lewis Society of California has e-mailed us with the latest updates on many upcoming events that you’re all invited to attend! I hope that some of you have the chance to visit these events and join Lewis Societies, or even have the opportunity to start one in your own area if one does not exist. Here’s the update:
In this Issue of C.S. Lewis Society Update:
1. Upcoming Films
2. Important New Books
3. Next meetings of the C.S. Lewis Society’s Bay Area Book Club
4. Other Upcoming Events
1. Upcoming Films:
With the enormous film success of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” based on the first volume of C.S. Lewis’s beloved 7-volume series, “The Chronicles of Narnia,” plans are underway at Walden Media to produce the following films based on other Lewis novels, for public release as follows:
“Prince Caspian” — mid-2008
“The Screwtape Letters” — Christmas 2008
“Voyage of the ‘Dawn Treader'” — mid-2009
“The Silver Chair” — mid-2010
In addition, the Duncan Group is in post-production for the forthcoming program for PBS:
“Myth, Imagination & Faith: A Spiritual Journey through Literature”
Featuring the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, George MacDonald and C.S. Lewis, this new documentary will explore the central theme of “the true myth” with experts and scholars weighing in from various perspectives. The show plans to follow in the traditions of both the acclaimed programs, “The Magic Never Ends” and the PBS special “The Question of God.”
2. Important new books:
* The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy, 1950-1963
Edited by Walter Hooper
HarperSanFrancisco, 2007
The final installment of the three-volume collected letters of C. S. Lewis, this volume contains the letters Lewis wrote during the last part of his life, spanning his time at Cambridge, his brilliant creation of the land of Narnia and the children’s series that followed, and his struggle with his wife Joy’s serious illness and death. Editor and friend Walter Hooper calls him “one of the last great letter-writers” — the last of a generation who did not lift a telephone receiver when he had something to say or tap out e-mails on a computer keyboard. Some of the recipients richly merited his ink: the detective novelist, theologian and Dante translator Dorothy Sayers; St. Giovanni Calabria of Verona (correspondence in Latin); T.S. Eliot; the sci-fi maestro Arthur C. Clarke; and the American writer Robert Penn Warren. In these letters, Lewis swaps quips in Latin and Greek and quotes Spenser, Statius, Beowulf, Horace, Wordsworth, Terence and Augustus. Other letters were from cranks, whiners and down-and-out charity cases; he answered them all.
* The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community
By Diana Glyer (Professor of English, Azusa Pacific University)
Kent State University Press, 2007
The creators of Narnia and Middle Earth, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien were close friends and professional colleagues. They met frequently with a community of fellow Christian writers at Oxford in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, all sharing their works-in-progress. The group became known as the Inklings. Diana Glyer invites readers into the heart of the group, examining diary entries, personal letters and manuscripts.
* C.S. Lewis: Life, Works, and Legacy (4 volumes)
Edited by Bruce L. Edwards (Professor and Associate Dean, Bowling Green State University)
Praeger Publishers, 2007
This splendid, four-volume reference set on the life and works of C. S. Lewis includes such contributors as Devin Brown, Wayne Martindale, Victor Reppert, Lyle Dorsett, Perry Bramlett, Diana Glyer, Marjorie Lamp Mead, Colin Duriez, and many other Lewis scholars.
3. Next meetings of the C.S. Lewis Society’s Bay Area Book Club:
Book for Discussion:
PERELANDRA, by C.S. Lewis (from his acclaimed Space Trilogy)
“Mr. Lewis has a genius for making his fantasies livable.”
–NEW YORK TIMES
“Lewis, perhaps more than any other twentieth-century writer, forced those who listened to him and read his works to come to terms with their own philosophical presuppositions.”
–LOS ANGELES TIMES
“If wit and wisdom, style and scholarship are requisites to passage through the pearly gates, Mr. Lewis will be among the angels.”
–NEW YORKER
“Writing of the highest order. PERELANDRA is, from all standpoints, far superior to other tales of interplanetary adventures.”
–COMMONWEAL
Meeting moderator/leader: Tom Price
Wednesday, May 30th, 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, June 13th, 7:30 p.m.
The second in C.S. Lewis’s acclaimed Space Trilogy, which includes Out of the Silent Planet and That Hideous Strength, PERELANDRA continues the adventures of the extraordinary Dr. Elwin Ransom as he journeys to a new world, Perelandra, and meets a human native, a glamorously beautiful woman who is the equivalent of Eve. The book is a a truly magical tale, completely unique in the science fiction genre. Pitted against the greatest of human weaknesses, temptation, Ransom must battle for good on Perelandra when it is invaded by pure evil. Will Perelandra succumb or will it throw off the yoke of corruption and achieve a spiritual perfection as yet unknown to man? The outcome of Dr. Ransom’s mighty struggle will alone determine its fate.
The meetings will be held at:
11990 Skyline Boulevard, Oakland, CA 94619
510-482-2906 phone
wine, soft drinks and other refreshments served
Here also are articles that discuss PERELANDRA:
“PERELANDRA, by C.S. Lewis,” reviewed by Peter Schakel, The Literary Encyclopedia
“C. S. Lewis: Science and Scientism,” by Henry F. Schaefer III
PERELANDRA is available in paperback and on CD.
Here also is the schedule of future Lewis Society book club meetings:
http://www.lewissociety.org/bookclub.php
Here also is information on C.S. Lewis:
http://www.lewissociety.org/aboutlewis.php
We hope that you and/or others you know will be joining with us! (Please feel free to forward this update to others.)
4. Other Upcoming Events:
http://www.lewissociety.org/events.php
Dorothy L. Sayers Society Annual Convention
Sponsored by the Marion E. Wade Center
Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL
June 13-17, 2007
http://www.wheaton.edu/wadecenter/news/news.html
The 26th Annual Chesterton Conference: “The Man Who Was Today”
Sponsored by the American Chesterton Society
University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN
June 14-16, 2007
http://www.chesterton.org/rediscover/conference.html
“Opposition Is True Friendship: Love, Friendship and Philosophy in C.S. Lewis’s World”
Sponsored by the Southern California C.S. Lewis Society
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Monrovia, CA
June 16, 2007
C.S. Lewis Summer Conference: “Finding the Way: C.S. Lewis as Pilgrim Guide in an Age of Pluralism”
Sponsored by the C.S. Lewis Foundation
San Diego, CA
June 28-July 1, 2007
http://www.cslewis.org/programs/sumconference/2007/index.html
The 38th Annual Mythopoeic Conference (Mythcon XXXVIII), “Becoming Adept: The Journey to Mastery”
Sponsored by the Mythopoeic Society
University of California, Berkeley, CA
August 3-6, 2007
http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon38.html
“The Crisis of the University: Freedom, Tolerance and the Pursuit of Truth”
Sponsored by the C.S. Lewis Foundation
University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
October 5-6, 2007
http://www.cslewis.org/programs/ff/2007/index.html
“C.S. Lewis: Man and His Work: A 21st Century Legacy”
Sponsored by L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture
Southeastern College at Wake Forest, Wake Forest, NC
October 26-27, 2007
http://www.sebts.edu/CSLewis/