C S Lewis Centenary Group

Newsletter of the C S Lewis Centenary Group, commemorating Lewis’s Centenary in his native land

Number 6, November 1997

News each month from the C S Lewis Centenary Group

Please email us on cslewis@dnet.co.uk if you would like to receive a copy of the newsletter by email.

C. S. LEWIS ARCHIVE IN BELFAST

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland [PRONI] and the C S Lewis Centenary Group have agreed to establish a new C. S. Lewis Archive. in Belfast. The new archive will focus on Lewis’s Irish links and will complement the great collections of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, the Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College, Illinois, and the Edwin W. Brown Collection, Taylor University, Indiana.

PRONI will hold the archive at its offices in Balmoral Avenue, Belfast, on behalf of the C S Lewis Centenary Group. The archive will be open to members of the public free of charge.

STATUE

Belfast City Council will give a grant of £13,000 towards the construction of a life-sized statue of CSL, to be placed in a public area of Belfast during 1998. This sum represents 40 per cent of the total cost of the statue, to be designed by Ulster artist, Mr Ross Wilson. The Centenary Group must mount a major effort to raise the remaining money. God willing, we shall succeed.

ROYAL MAIL STAMPS

The Royal Mail will issue special stamps on ‘Writers of Children’s Fantasy’ on 21 July 1998. The stamps will feature C. S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll, JRR Tolkien, Mary North and Edith Nesbitt.

CONFERENCES

1. Seattle

1998 CONFERENCE TO CELEBRATE THE C. S. LEWIS LEGACY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY, to be held at the campus of Seattle Pacific University, June 19-21, 1998, sponsored by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Inc., Seattle Pacific University, Seattle University, and Discovery Institute. Proposals for papers due February 1, 1998, papers due April 15. Contact: Dr John West, Political Science, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, Washington, 98119. Tel: 206 281 2162; email <jwest@spu.edu>

2. Wheaton, Illinois: C. S. Lewis: A Centenary Celebration will take place at Wheaton College, Illinois, July 13-20, 1998. The Celebration will include:

- Mythcon 29 [July 15-20], Annual Conference of the Mythopoeic Society. Special Guests of Honour will be Paul Ford and Verlyn Flieger. Paul Ford is the author of Companion to Narnia and an Inklings scholar. Verlyn Flieger has specialised knowledge of Owen Barfield, whose Centenary, like that of CSL, falls in 1998.

Confirmed speakers for Mythcon include Joe Christopher, Bruce Edwards, Verlyn Flieger, Wayne Hammond, Charles Huttar, John Rateliff and Christina Scull. A sub-theme of Mythcon is The Irishness of C. S. Lewis. Contact: C. S. Lewis Centenary Celebration (Mythcon XXIX), c/o Lynn Maudlin, P.O. Box 394, Altadena, CA 91003. Email: <maudlinlynn@earthlink.net> Web site: http://home.earthlink.net/~emfarrell/mythsoc/mythcon29.html

- A Pre-Conference Workshop held by Dr Bruce Edwards of Bowling Green State University [July13-15]. Contact details as above.

3. Belfast CS Lewis: Saint and Scholar, August 5-8, 1998. The first major conference ever in Ireland on the work of C. S. Lewis. Contact: Dr John Gillespie, School of Languages & Literature, University of Ulster, Coleraine, N. Ireland. <JH.Gillespie@ulst.ac.uk>

LECTURES AND COURSES

Irish Christian Study Centre: 13th CS Lewis Memorial Lecture Dr Alister McGrath will deliver this year’s lecture CS Lewis: Defender of the Faith on Thursday 13th November at 7.00 pm (please note the time) in the New Physics Lecture Theatre, Queen’s University, Belfast. Dr McGrath is Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, a University Research Lecturer in Theology at the University of Oxford, and Professor of Systematic Theology at Regent’s College, Vancouver.

Apologist and Writer The Irish Christian Study Centre will present an extra-mural course on CS Lewis: Apologist and Writer in conjunction with the Institute of Continuing Education, Queen’s University, Belfast, on Tuesday evenings from 27th January - 31st March. Further details from the Institute.

BOOKS AND ARTICLES

Bonanza Waterstone’s Bookshops (of Belfast) say that there will be a publishing bonanza of books on C S Lewis in 1998. There will be new editions of CSL’s own books and several new books about CSL. Waterstone’s (which is a National chain) are planning a special promotion in November 1998.

Companion and Guide Walter Hooper says that the UK paperback edition of his Companion and Guide is priced at £17.99, not, as stated in the October Newsletter, £19.99.

The Lamp-Post The Editor of The Lamp-Post has called for articles. The Lamp-Post is the literary review of the Southern California C. S. Lewis Society and one of the world’s foremost scholarly journals for publishing criticism on C. S. Lewis and related authors. Submissions on disk are preferred, or by email. Please include a printed copy for proofing purposes.

James Prothero, Sr., editor, The Lamp-Post, 29562 Westmont Court, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675-1221. Fax: (714) 364-7009 Email: lamppost@ix.netcom.com

Articles Rev Jack Lamb, a member of the Group and a Presbyterian Minister, reports that articles on CSL will appear next year in the Christian Irishman and the Presbyterian Herald.

RESEARCH

W. T. Kirkpatrick Walter Hooper says that, despite his efforts, his publishers omitted a most important new piece of his research from the UK paperback edition of C. S. Lewis: a Companion and Guide (published September 1997). With the help of Heather Stanley Stanley of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland , Walter Hooper discovered the date and place of the birth of W. T. Kirkpatrick, whom Lewis described as the greatest single intellectual influence on his life.

Kirkpatrick was born on 19th January, 1848, in Carrickmaddyroe, Boardmills, Co Down. Walter Hooper will try to ensure that this information is included in the US paperback edition, due for publication in 1998.

Arthur Greeves Mr Kerry Greeves haJoy 2 paintings in his possession painted by his cousin, Arthur Greeves (see October C S Lewis News). They are landscapes in oil of (a) the Holywood Hills in Summer and (b) fields outside Crawfordsburn, in fact the view from Greeves’s house, under snow in Winter.

Research Fellow. The President of Magdalen College, Oxford, Mr Anthony Smith, has offered our Research Fellow, Mr Ronald Bresland, accommodation in College Lodgings for a week, to help Mr Bresland to pursue his studies at the C S Lewis archive in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. We thank Mr Smith for his generous assistance

Young Jack Mrs Primrose Henderson, daughter of Gundreda Ewart (whom CSL thought the most beautiful woman he had ever seen), confirms that the photograph of the young Jack, which we printed on the front cover of The C S Lewis Trail in Belfast and North Down was taken at Glenmachan, the Ewart home.

PEOPLE

Joy Douglas Gresham has announced the birth of his first grandchild Michael John Gresham. The event was on 8th October in Rutherfordton, North Carolina,. Michael, Douglas notes, is CSL’s first step-great grandchild. All have our congratulations and good wishes.

Ross Wilson The Ulster artist, Ross Wilson, designer of the proposed Belfast statue (see above), visited the USA in October, showing his exhibition Images of Oscar Wilde in the Widener Libray, Harvard University, Massachusetts.

Mary Rogers Mary Rogers has sent a copy of her biographical play on C. S. Lewis Prophet Without Honour or Dear Arthur. Mary Rogers ;

- is a daughter of Captain James Morwood, of Malone Park, Belfast

- attended CSL’s lectures at Oxford

- was a member of the Belfast Drawing Room Circle, together with Janie McNeill and Florence Greeves. Its papers are held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.

- married Rev Val Rogers, Headmaster of Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, 1954-73.

- has given lectures on CSL in the United States and to the Oxford University C. S. Lewis Society

- has writtten an article on CSL to appear in the University magazine Oxford Today

Joan Murphy Dr Edwin Brown of Indianapolis, USA, notes that Joan Murphy, Guide to the first specialist C. S. Lewis tour in England last summer, is a daughter of Dr Joseph Lewis, who was a first cousin of CSL’s. Joan Murphy is then a first cousin, once removed, of CSL’s. Joan married Prof. Bryan Murphy, who taught Russian at the University of Ulster. CSL and Warnie Lewis baby-sat their 2 (or 3) boys, while Joan was pursuing her studies at Oxford.

EVENTS

Centenary Stone Michael Ward, of the Oxford University C. S. Lewis Society, reports that the Dedication of the Centenary Stone in Addison’s Walk, Magdalen College, Oxford, will take place in May 1998.

Centenary Programme The launch of the Group’s C. S. Lewis Centenary Programme of Events will take place in the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, on Thursday, 27th November, 1998, at 11 am., in conjunction with the Lyric Theatre’s launch of their Christmas Production of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

99th Anniversary Walk On Saturday 29th November, the 99th Anniversary of C S Lewis’s birth, the C S Lewis Centenary Group will conduct an extra Guided Tour round the C S Lewis Trail. Meet at St Mark’s Church, Holywood Road, Belfast, at 10 am.

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