Joel Heck's Lewis Site

This version of the chronology contains more about the post-Jack years of Warren Lewis, especially his holidays in Ireland, which he took with Len and Mollie Miller, as well as in the Walberswick area of East Anglia, where June Freud and her husband lent him the use of their cottage when she and her husband Clement were elsewhere. Whenever Warren took these holidays, he seems to have made a deal with the Millers—if you do the driving, Len, and the cooking, Mollie (although they ate out a lot), I will cover all the expenses.

There is also a bit more information about the growing correspondence (almost romance, as Diana Glyer has pointed out) between Warren and Dr. Blanche Biggs, missionary doctor in New Guinea. And it is quite clear that Warren is not thinking about converting to Roman Catholicism in the post-Jack years, a position I have sometimes seen argued. For example, in his travel journey for June 9, 1968, Warren rejoices in the strength of the Church of Ireland in Roman Catholic territory. This is by no means a rare comment—he makes a similar comment in the same journal entry for that date and occasionally in other places. Although he appreciated the nuns of Drogheda, where he on more than one occasion dried out from alcohol consumption, I have read nothing from him about being attracted to Catholicism. Nor is there anything about staying Protestant for the sake of Jack’s memory.

This version includes some notes about Walter Hooper’s annual gathering known as “C. S. Lewis and Friends” (such as the one that occurred on May 19, 1971; there is at least one other such gathering mentioned in this version), which Warren attended and liked, except that he seldom got to speak with anyone at length and was always on display for those who wanted to meet him, probably as “the brother of the great one.” There is more about Douglas and David Gresham, as they matured into responsible young men. Douglas was living with his wife Merry in Tasmania, and David was studying at Cambridge University. Warren also spends some time with Clyde Kilby.

With this version, now about sixteen more pages and 8,000 more words than last time, I am nearing the end of the main part of this project. I am almost finished with the reading of the final sections of Warren’s diaries and incorporating information up to the point of Warren’s death. This summer I will read the rest of The Lewis Papers and incorporate any new information. At that point, this historical project on the life of the Lewis brothers will be about 99% complete, at least in terms of content. There may yet be some new ways of organizing or formatting this chronology that could significantly change the way it looks, and I would invite any readers to make suggestions for improvements (for example, I would like to use running heads, so that the year is always visible, but I haven’t seen how that works). There will also be a few corrections. Almost all other additions to the content will come from those tidbits that appear in other people’s diaries, biographies, or various other literary documents, such as the recent information from a life of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, whose recent (2013) biography reported that Lloyd-Jones had lunch with Lewis on Feb. 7, 1941.