C. S. Lewis
(November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963)
Clive Staples Lewis was a novelist, poet, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, and Christian apologist. He wrote as C. S. Lewis, and was known to his friends as Jack. Born in Belfast, Ireland, he held academic positions at both Oxford (1925–1954) and Cambridge universities (1954–1963). At Oxford, he was a faculty sponsor of the Oxford University Speculative Fiction Group.
He is best known for his fantastic fiction, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy.
The Space Trilogy consists of:
- Out of the Silent Planet (1938), set mostly on Mars (Malacandra). In this book Elwin Ransom voyages to Mars and discovers that Earth is exiled from the rest of the solar system.
- Perelandra (1943), set mostly on Venus. Here Dr Ransom journeys to an unspoiled Venus in which the first humanoids have just emerged.
- That Hideous Strength (1945), set on Earth. A scientific think tank called N.I.C.E. (The National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments) is secretly in touch with demonic entities who plan to ravage and lay waste to planet Earth.
His non-fiction books included Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.
Lewis and fellow fantasy novelist J. R. R. Tolkien were close friends. Both authors served on the English faculty at Oxford University, and both were active in the informal Oxford literary group known as the Inklings. A wide variety of fanzines have been published devoted to the Inklings and several devoted to Lewis.
Francis H. P. Knight, a fan from Walsall, was a correspondent of Lewis's from 1938 until at least 1956. In a letter to Knight in November 1938, Lewis said:
... Another thing I learn is that my sales are likely to be small since 'S-F-Fans' are clearly ante-Christian and most Christians are not space fans!...[1]
Lewis died on the same day as another much different sf writer Aldous Huxley and US president John F. Kennedy. This led to Peter Kreeft's philosophical novel or “afterlife fantasy” Between Heaven and Hell: A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis, & Aldous Huxley (1982). Lewis also appears as an antagonist in Greg Egan's "Oracle".
- https://www.cslewis.com
- Entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
- C. S. Lewis in Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- wikipedia:C. S. Lewis
Awards, Honors and GoHships:
- 1996 -- 1946 Best Novel Retro Hugo nominee for That Hideous Strength
- 2001 -- 1951 Best Novel Retro Hugo nominee for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
| Person | 1898—1963 |
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- ↑ Quoted by auctioneers Bonhams when selling Knight's copies of Lewis's books. One would expect rather that Lewis would call fans simply anti-Christian in their attitude and not somehow pre-Christian, and Bonham's be able to transcribe this right, but who knows?
