Since there are several bits of Lewis related news this week, I’ve put them together into one blog post for your convenience.
Lewis on list of those who turned down honors from the Queen
Though I am pretty sure this was already commonly known in Lewis studies (I remember reading it somewhere), C.S. Lewis turned down the honor of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (C.B.E.) in 1952. Interestingly enough, it also forms another slight connection of Lewis to writer Aldous Huxley, who died on the same day as Lewis on November 22, 1963 (the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated). Huxley turned down a Knighthood in 1959.
Fantasy Author Neil Gaiman posts reprint of his speech on Lewis, Tolkien, and Chesterton
British author Neil Gaiman, known for his fantasy novels (several of which have been adapted for film), gave a speech in 2004 to the Mythopoeic Society on the influence of Lewis, Tolkien, and Chesterton on his ambition to be a writer and on their influence on his writing style. He reposted it on his blog today.
“The C.S. Lewis Minute” and “All About Jack: A C.S. Lewis Podcast”
If you haven’t caught them yet, William O’Flaherty, an alumnus of our Summer Institutes and several of our C.S. Lewis Retreats in Texas, has been busy podcasting on C.S. Lewis and the Inklings, including interviews with various C.S. Lewis scholars. He has two podcasts:
- “The C.S. Lewis Minute,” in which he gives a quick 60 second audio piece on Lewis (about two a week)
- The new “All About Jack: A C.S. Lewis Podcast,” in which he hosts longer interviews with authors of books related to C.S. Lewis.
He has also recently published an article at The Herald Standard titled “The Lasting Legacy of C.S. Lewis.”