Collected Letters Volume Three: Narnia, Cambridge and Joy 1950–1963. Walter Hooper

241 ‘What happens to Jews who are still waiting for the Messiah?’

242 ‘Is the Bible infallible?’

243 Lewis originally wrote ‘not read with attention’, but altered this to ‘without’, presumably overlooking that he had written ‘not read’. But his meaning is ‘isolated from their context and read without attention…’

244 фονχεύσετς as in Matthew 19:18.

245 άποχτεíναι as in John 8:37.

246 ‘If a thief killed Eileen would I be wrong to want him to die?’

247 ‘Is killing in self defense all right?’

248 Romans 13:4.

249 Luke 3:14.

250 Matthew 8:10.

251 ‘Will we recognize our loved ones in Heaven?’

252 Matthew 22:4.

253 Matthew 22:2-12; Luke 12:36.

254 Hebrews 11:16; 12:22.

255 Revelation 5:8-14.

256 ‘If Wayne didn’t go to Heaven I wouldn’t want to either. Would his name be erased from my brain?’

257 ‘Do you like sweets?’

258 ‘Are you handsome?’

259 ‘Tell me the story about the barber.’

260 Edward T. Dell Jr had written to Bles on 30 October 1952 that those essays by Lewis ‘chiefly found in pamphlet form or as articles in the “Spectator” might, with an appropriate preface, make an interesting book of essays…There is also a sermon that might be included as well. It was delivered in a church in the midlands on Apr. 7, 1946…I imagine Dr Lewis would scoff at the idea of a reprinting of his first book Spirits in Bondage but to me the book seems to merit it just as much as did Dymer’ (Bodleian Library, Dep. c. 771, fol. 9).

261 On 7 April 1946 Lewis preached a sermon entitled ‘Miserable Offenders’ in St Matthew’s Church, Northampton. It was included in a booklet, Five Sermons by Laymen (April-May 1946), and is reprinted in EC.

262 Mrs Shelburne, formerly an Anglican or Episcopalian, in 1951 converted to the Catholic Church.

263 See J. R. R. Tolkien in the Biographical Appendix to CL I, pp. 1022-4.

264 Lewis had read the typescript of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings in October 1949, and he wrote to his friend about it on 27 October 1949 (CL II, pp. 990-1). Since then Tolkien had been trying to get it published, hoping whoever published it would also publish the unfinished Silmarillion. Rayner Unwin, the son of the publisher Sir Stanley Unwin (1884-1968) of Allen & Unwin publishers, believed it to be a very great work and his father left it to him to decide whether the firm should accept it. After calculations and discussions with others in Allen & Unwin, Rayner wrote to Tolkien on 10 November 1952 saying the firm would like to publish the book under a profit-sharing agreement, under which Tolkien would receive nothing until the sales of the book had covered its publishing costs, but would afterwards share equally with the publishers any profits that might accrue. Tolkien was delighted The Lord of the Rings had been accepted, and he wrote at once to tell Lewis what had happened. Lewis replied with this letter.

265 ‘without trace’.

266 Priscilla was Tolkien’s daughter.

267 Katharine Farrer had been corresponding with Tolkien about The Lord of the Rings.

268 MacDonald, Diary of an Old Soul, November 3: ‘Have pity on us for the look of things,/Where blank denial stares us in the face./Although the serpent mask have lied before/It fascinates the bird.’

269 Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34.

270 Romans 12:5.

271 Mrs Van Deusen may have suggested sending Lewis the autobiography of the American political writer Whittaker Chambers (1901-61), best known for his accusation and testimony against Alger Hiss (1904-96), the architect of the Yalta Conference and Secretary General of the San Francisco conference that created the United Nations. Chambers’ autobiography, Witness, was published in 1952.

272 Blamires had applied for a job in Edinburgh.

273 The US edition of Mere Christianity was published by Macmillan of New York on 11 November 1952.

274 The Voyage of the ‘Dawn Treader’.

275 During the autumn of 1952 the Church Times featured a number of pencil drawings of ‘Portraits of Personalities’; that of Lewis, by Stanley Parker, appeared in the Church Times, CXXXV (21 November 1952), p. 844.

276 This was possibly the working title for an intended collection of Lewis’s essays.

277 Serena is a young lady whose adventures are recounted