Rare Signed Narnia First Edition goes at Auction for £30,000

A signed first edition of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe went up for auction last week.  What was special about this first edition, which was only estimated to have a value of £12,000?  It was signed with C.S. Lewis’ nickname, which is something he would rarely do.

The inscription reads: Nicholas Hardie, with love from Jack Lewis, Christmas 1950.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, first edition, signed presentation copy from the author as ‘Jack Lewis’ to Nicholas Hardie, inscribed on endpaper, illustrated by Pauline Baynes, original cloth, cocked, sunned, spine ends and corners a little frayed, 8vo, 1950.

Provenance: Given to Nicholas Hardie, son of Colin Graham Hardie (1906-98), classical scholar. In 1936 he was appointed fellow and tutor in classics at Magdelen College, Oxford, partly coinciding with C.S.Lewis’s own teaching career at Oxford. They becamse close friends and read aloud from Dante together in weekly evening sessions. Hardie was a member of the Inklings, and regularly attended meetings, sometimes at the Eagle and Child pub on St. Giles. Lewis presented Nicholas Hardie, then a boy, with an inscribed copy of each of the first four books in the Narnia series, the fourth, ‘The Silver Chair’, was dedicated to Nicholas. (via Bloomsbury Auctions)

est. £8000 – £12000

Exceptionally scarce. C.S.Lewis rarely inscribed his own works, and hardly ever signed as ‘Jack Lewis’, a name he usually reserved for close friends and family.

Sold for £30000
Sale 35940, 19th July 2012

It is believed to be the only copy ever to go on sale signed with the author’s nickname, and it was bought by a private UK buyer.

Mr Hardie’s father, the Oxford University classics scholar Colin Graham Hardie, was a don at Magdalen College from 1936 until his retirement in 1973. He became a close friend of the children’s book writer, who was a fellow and English tutor at Magdalen.

Colin Hardie was also a member of the Inklings, the informal literary group, that included Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien, which met regularly at the Eagle and Child pub in St Giles.

Mr Hardie, now aged 66, said: “Lewis and my father were colleagues in Oxford for many years. In his book on the Inklings, Humphrey Carpenter related that Lewis and my father read Dante’s works aloud together in weekly evening sessions just before the war.

“From 1945 onwards my father attended regular meetings of the Inklings.”

Mr Hardie, who now lives in Italy, recalled: “I don’t know how often Lewis came to our house.

“There was only one occasion I was explicitly aware of, probably because my mother put me on best behaviour.

“I vaguely remember sitting and making adult conversation, and being aware that this was C.S. Lewis, whose Narnia books I had already read.”

Mr Hardie was presented with the first four Narnia books by the author as they were published. No decision has been taken on whether any of the other books will be sold. (via Oxford Times)