Interesting facts about the author

Tazzy

Tazzy

New member
I thought we'd start a thread where we could know loadsa new and interessting things about him....

Me first! C.S Lewis was an athiest from the age of 13 - 31 because he thought that religion became 'work' instead of worship.
 
I understand what you mean about work vs. worship, since Mr. Lewis records that prayer as he first understood it seemed laborious. But there was more to it besides. If his mother had not died of sickness when he was young, he would not have experienced the bitterness against God which pushed him over the edge for years. Having Digory's mother get cured in "The Magician's Nephew"--the very request that had been denied to the boy Jack Lewis--Mr. Lewis was working out his old childhood grief. Kind of like the movie "The Never-Ending Story," in which the boy Bastian, when called upon to give the Child Empress a new name, gives her the name of his deceased mother. (Which, in a further thought, was one of the many things done all wrong in the sequel to that film: they forgot or ignored the naming of the good Empress.)

Moving to another fact, did you know that Mr. Lewis once had a REAL swordfight? I read this in one of his biographies. One of the young men having private teaching sessions with him was being stubborn about some question that Mr. Lewis felt sure the lad _should_ have seen his way; so--perhaps with a hidden intent of introducing the student to the old-time concept of duels of honor--he challenged the younger man to a duel-to-the-first-touch with real swords. The student took him up on it...and received what perhaps was a useful lesson in respecting his elders, when Lewis won the match.
 
He had frozen thumbs, inherited from his father. His knuckes on his thumbs wouldn't bend, so he had to station the pen he used in a circle that he made when he curled his forefinger around his thumb.
 
Jack and his brother Warnie liked to make up lands and worlds. They had one called Boxen when they were little.

Jack had a headmaster at school who was so cruel and horrible that he couldn't stand it. The headmaster was later committed to an insane assylum.

(Copperfox, go check out the thread on NES and see my last comments on the naming issue)
 
his name was Clive Staples (CS) but he disliked it and as a child started making everyone call him Jacksie -- and later as a grown-up was known as Jack.

My name is Jax and lots of people who love me call me Jaxie! Almost like Jack.

And after WWI, Jack took care of a mean disabled old lady who was the mother of his friend who died in the war -- they had promised each other if they were killed, the living one would look after the other's mother. And Jack kept his promise.
 
He not only took care of Paddy Moore's mother, but also his sister.

Jack's grandfather was a minister and the doorknob of his grandfather's study had a lion on it which some think was something that helped inspire the character of Aslan.
 
I wonder whether, if Jack had been willing to join Warnie in refurbishing their old "Boxen" stories, those could have been made into something worth reading?
 
I bet they would have been pretty neat...especially considering how young they were when they made it up.

Jack taught at Oxford and Cambridge. One could tell that he was giving a lecture because of the amount of bikes outside.

Jack and Warnie had made a mess of the Kilns (the place/house where they lived when grown up)....that is until Joy moved in and cleaned house.
 
Is it true, as it was presented in The ShadowLands film, that Jack married Joy just so she could stay in England, and never really "fell in love" with her until he was in danger of losing her to cancer?
 
There's debate over that one. Some wonder if Jack really knew how much he loved Joy until he was going to lose her...and then once aware of his real feelings he married her again. Overall Shadowlands is accurate there I think.

Jack married Joy and took her and her 2 sons home to the Kilns. Doug and Jack were close. David prefers to stay out of the picture. Shadowlands made it appeaer that there was only one boy when there were actually 2.
 
Jack was born in Ireland and lived in a house called LittleLea. His mother died when he was about 9 years old and his dad shipped him and his brother off to boarding school after that because he couldn't deal well with the loss.
 
He's probably published in more genres than most authors.

His lectures were often open to all students.

Jack died the same day as JFK.
 
Alduous Huxley, also an author, died the same day. Peter Kreeft wrote a witty play about Jack, JFK and Huxley all arriving in the afterlife together.
 
He was a member of a group called the Inklings who shared their literary works with each other before they were published. He was also friends with fellow Inkling, J.R.R. Tolkien. Their friendship was almost ruined because Tolkien didn't like Father Christmas being in LWW...among other things.
 
Back
Top