I’m getting near to the end of the second volume of the collected letters of C.S. Lewis. I haven’t read the first, and it has been a year of on and off reading this vol. I greatly relish my literary pleasures, and this has been a good and an unusual one. My favorite are his letters to his brother–I wish there had been more. But it is also interesting to note how he deals with different people, what he says to children, to his friend Barfield, to Sister Penelope who prayed and healed–apparently–a terrier and was trying to publish a translation of Athanasius, to Mr. T.S. Eliot, to the Americans who sent him ham and stationery, to Dorothy Sayers. And besides that, to learn more details about his life: his patience and sacrifice with Mrs. Moore.
I’m going to have to read Vol. 1 eventually, and also when it is available, Vol. 3, because I don’t know how else to replace such reading. And that is the mark of a good book: something you regret finishing because now it is over with.
I’ve found something not altogether like, but closeish. That is Boswell’s Life of Johnson. Before Boswell knew the chap, the account is not actually all that interesting. That lasts for almost 300 pages. But nearing the 300s it gets going, and the happy news is that there are still 1000 pages left. Not the most congenial for me, but certainly curious, lively, full of wit and with worthwhile things. And considering how much of this went into Lewis–to judge by what came out in the letters–not altogether a bad sequel as occasional and in-between enjoyable reading.
Unknowing 
Hi Joel
Volume 3 has been published, but is still only available in hardback, I think.
I whipped through volume 1 in about a month. I found it fascinating and couldn’t put it down. And my computer was in for a warranty repair!
Volume 2 took longer, but was immensely interesting. I read a biography of Lewis along with the book, which helped explain some of the letters (and the letters helped explain some of the bio).
I found the thank-you notes to the Americans a little tedious.
And I agree the letters to Warren were among the best.
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
Thanks for the comment. It makes me look forward more to Vol 1. I agree about the tediousness of the thank-yous, 1948 is a harder year to read, but that is a way to appreciate the austerities he underwent, and on top of that the decline of Mrs. Moore.
I’m going to have to visit my Grandmother in FL when that third volume comes out in paper. 1840 pages!
Yeah, really good stuff. I like to read a handful before picking up whatever I’m reading at the time, and have read most of both volumes now. The thank-yous are sort of “sentimental” for me, since my grandmother lived through the bombings of Belfast and had lots of similar stories of austerity to tell during and immediately after the war, which she would talk about when I was very young. It helps me identify a little bit more with what she went through, and why she preserved some of the habits she had.
I often think of myself as a sort of amalgam of Lewis and Warnie; I wonder if other people see things that way?
I see myself as an amalgam of William Topaz McGonagall and Jim Theis.
I followed the links. Quite the reputation you have to live up to. (I know I ended with a preposition, but I painted myself into a corner, you see.)
I would not want it noised abroad that ending the sentence with a preposition, which we regularly do with all clarity, is something I object to.