Editor’s Note
Unless you were a personal friend of C. S. Lewis, or one of his many correspondents, you are probably not aware that he went by “Jack” to his friends, a name he landed on as a child and decided it suited him better than his given one (Clive Staples Lewis). So at the end of most of his letters, you encountered “Yours, Jack.” This book is intended to extend that personal relationship to you, the reader.
The purposes of this collection of letters are (1) to draw attention to how, indirectly and directly, C. S. Lewis experienced spiritual direction, wrote about it, and practiced it, and (2) to allow the reader to benefit from having Lewis as a director.
The letters are arranged chronologically because that seemed to be the best way to demonstrate what Lewis was experiencing, reading, and thinking about at the time.
Lewis’s spelling, punctuation, grammar, and various ways of dating letters have been regularized to provide the reader an un-distracted experience. His capitalization was generally maintained because he used it for emphasis. Translations of foreign-language quotations are provided in brackets. Biblical references and essential bibliographical references are provided in the footnotes when Lewis did not insert them into the actual letters.
Deletions are to be assumed at the beginnings and endings of letters; ellipsis marks indicate deletions within letters. The complimentary close and the signature of letters are retained when they are significantly different from Lewis’s regular style.
Readers who desire more complete bibliographical information about books cited and more complete biographical information about people written to or mentioned are invited to consult the three volumes of The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, so admirably and lovingly edited by Walter Hooper.
This collection contains three kinds of letters. There are letters of spiritual companionship (letters between equals) to Arthur Greeves (his oldest friend, twenty-eight letters), Warren Lewis (his brother, eleven letters), Leo Baker (three letters), Owen Barfield (four letters), and Bede Griffiths (twenty-eight letters).
There are letters of spiritual discipleship (letters to those from whom Lewis sought spiritual advice) to (Saint) Giovanni Calabria (six letters, written in Latin and translated by Martin Moynihan) and Sister Penelope (Lawson, C.S.M.V., eleven letters). Finally, there are letters of spiritual direction (letters to those to whom Lewis gave spiritual advice) to Rhona Bodle (fifteen letters), Michael Edwards (two letters), Vera (Mathews) Gebbert (four letters), Genia Goelz (two letters), Mr. Green (three letters), Mrs. D. Jessup (seven letters), Mrs. Johnson (five letters), Mrs. Frank L. Jones (two letters), Laurence Krieg (two letters), Philinda Krieg (two letters), “Mrs. Lockley” (six letters), Edward Lofstrom (two letters), Mary (née Shelley) Neylan (eleven letters), Mary Willis Shelburne (forty letters), Patricia Thomson (two letters), Sheldon Vanauken (twelve letters), Mary Van Deusen (thirty-three letters), and others who received one letter each.
Abbreviations, Nicknames, and Translations
Minto Mrs. Janie King Moore, Lewis’s adopted stepmother.
Oremus pro invicem. Latin for “Let us pray for one another.” Lewis often used this at the close of letters in Latin or in English.
Vac. The vacation or holidays. At Oxford there are short vacs. between school terms and the long Vac. during the summer. Oxford and Cambridge terms are eight weeks in length. Oxford terms are named Michaelmas (from the Feast of St. Michael, September 29), Hilary (from the Feast of St. Hilary, January 13), and Trinity (from Trinity Sunday, the first Sunday after Pentecost). Cambridge terms are named Michaelmas, Lent, and Easter. The long Vac. lasts from July through September.
W. “Warnie,” i.e., Warren Hamilton Lewis, the older brother and only sibling of C. S. Lewis.