Customer Reviews

The Letters of C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves, 1914-1963

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C.S. Lewis believed that letters should be about a person's readings, thinkings, and doings, and this nearly half century of correspondence between Lewis and his friend Arthur Greeves richly fulfils all three of these areas. Only a few letters are by Greeves, the rest being Lewis's correspondence to him. Walter Hooper has done a fine job in ordering these letters and writing a fine introduction to fill in the background for these two. The letters are often funny, sometimes pensive, and usually insightful, but they are never dull. I enjoyed them greatly.

How many of us can write a decent letter, by hand, in this day and age? Lewis wrote a bookful of letters that are not only decent, but fascinating, revealing his genius from the age of 15 to shortly before his death at 62. How this prolific writer, full time student and then professor, while also caring for the cantankerous mother of a friend killed in the war, managed to find the time for this is beyond amazing. Particularly useful to the bibliophile are his running commentaries on the books he is reading. There is an excellent index. Highly recommended, needs reprinting.