C. S. Lewis (18981963), probably best known for The Screwtape Letters, The Allegory of Love and his children’s classic, the Narnia series, was many things: Medieval and Renaissance scholar, novelist, poet, mythologist, satirist, teacher, broadcaster, Christian apologist and one of the influential minds of our time. In this stimulating and imaginative narrative biography, author-playwright Griffin brings before us the man himself, as often as possible via his own words, throughout his long and energetic career at Oxford and Cambridge, particularly in his relations with friends, family, students, critics, editors, thus vividly revealing the warm personality of this keen logician with puckish humor (he once settled a dispute with a student by the sword). There are drawbacks to the method: one doesn’t learn the grounds of Lewis’s differences with Eliot, for example, or his close friend Tolkien, norfeel the full weight of his mind.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

YA This long and detailed chronology of Lewis’ life will be of particular value as a reference volume but not for recreational reading. It contains an excellent index, notes, and bibliography of works by C. S. Lewis. Numerous scenes from his life, often described in his own words, follow year by year from 1925, when he became a faculty member at Magdalen College (Oxford), to his death in 1963. This is an unemotional and unbiased account of his life and writing that reveals his great intellect and his skill as a writer of fantasy for children and religious books for adults. Through his own struggle with faith, Lewis formulated his beliefs and was always willing to counsel (in person or by letter) other strugglers. The biography reveals him to be a scholar, critic, and prolific writer. Sue McGown, St. John’s School, Houston
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.