C. S. Lewis: A Biography. Walter Hooper

^* Walter de la Mare (1873–1956), poet and novelist. His Songs of Childhood (1902) was followed by a large output of poems, novels and other books. Among his best known are The Return (1910), Peacock Pie (1913) and Behold the Dreamer (1939).

^† Alfred Leslie Rowse (1903–97), poet, biographer and historian, was born in Cornwall and was educated at Christ Church, Oxford.

^† William Francis Ross Hardie (1902–90), educated at Balliol College, was the Fellow of Philosophy at Magdalen College in 1925, Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 1926–50, and President of Corpus Christi College, 1950–69.

^* Lascelles Abercrombie (1881–1938), poet and critic, was educated at Malvern College. He was Professor of English Literature at the University of Leeds, 1922–9, the University of London, 1929–35, and Goldsmith’s Reader at Oxford, 1935–8. The works of this distinguished ‘metaphysical poet’ include Mary and the Bramble (1910) and The Sale of St Thomas (1931).

^† Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888–1965), poet, playwright, critic and publisher, was born in St Louis, Missouri and educated at Harvard. He intended to be a philosopher, and he spent 1914–15 at Merton College, Oxford on a fellowship. After meeting Ezra Pound he decided to become a poet and he settled in England. In 1925 he became a director of the publishing firm Faber & Gwyer (later Faber & Faber), and in 1927 was baptized in the Church of England. His poems include Prufrock and Other Observations (1917), Poems (1919) and Four Quartets (1935–42). In 1922 he founded a review entitled The Criterion, the first volume of which contained The Waste Land, the poem that established him as the voice of a disillusioned generation. Lewis feared the effect of his verse on modern poetry, and he never liked Eliot’s poetry or criticism. Years later, however, when they were brought together to work on a revision of the Psalter, Lewis came to like him very much. See his biography in CG.

^* Henry Vincent Yorke (1905–73), who wrote under the name ‘Henry Green’, is considered one of the most original prose writers of his generation. He was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, and worked for a while in the family business in London. His first novel, Blindness (1926), was begun while he was still at Eton. His other novels include Party Going (1939), and Caught (1943). He wrote an autobiographical work, Pack My Bag (1940).

^† ‘limit’. More had been arguing for a return to Christian Humanism as exemplified by limit and order – an idea which Eliot’s Waste Land explodes by its repeated emphasis on chaos.

^* John Hanbury Angus Sparrow (1906–92) was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford. He took a first in Classical Honour Moderations in 1927, and a first in Literae Humaniores in 1929. He was elected a Fellow of All Souls College in 1929, was called to the Bar in 1931. During the Second World War he served in the Coldstream Guards and the War Office, after which he resumed his practice at the Bar. He was Warden of All Souls College, 1952–77.

^† Louis MacNeice (1907–63), poet and critic, was born in Belfast, but he lived in Carrickfergus 1908–31 when his father was rector of the church there. He was educated at Marlborough and Merton College. His works include Blind Fireworks (1930), Poems (1935), The Earth Compels (1938), Springboard (1940) and Visitations (1957).

^* Walter Ogilvie ‘Wof’ Field (1893–1957) came up to Trinity College, Oxford, from Marlborough College in 1912. He left to join the Warwickshire Rifle Regiment in 1914, was promoted to captain in 1916, and after seeing action in France and Italy was wounded and forced to retire. In 1926 he became a teacher at the Rudolf Steiner School in Forest Row, East Sussex.

^* I.e. Middle English.

^* Neil Ripley Ker (1908–82), palaeographer, was born in London. He matriculated at Magdalen College in 1927, intending to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Lewis, however, persuaded him to turn to English Literature, and he obtained a Second Class Honours degree in 1931. Even as an undergraduate his antiquarian interests were pronounced, and this led him to the Bodleian to examine the manuscript copies of the texts he was studying. He began giving classes in Palaeography in 1936, and in 1941 he was appointed Lecturer in Palaeography. In 1945 he was elected a Fellow of Magdalen College, and in 1946 he was appointed Reader in Palaeography. He brought to the study acute powers of observation, and published a number of important catalogues of manuscripts.

^* The Kilns was bought with the understanding that it would be the Lewis brothers’ home for as long as they lived, after which it would go to Mrs Moore’s daughter, Maureen. On the death of his brother, Warnie feared it would be too expensive to live there. He put it up for rent, and moved to a smaller house in nearby Ringwood Road where he lived 1964–7. As he did not expect to return to The Kilns, he gave Maureen permission to build some houses on what had been the orchard. In May 1967 Warnie moved back to The Kilns, but by this time the rustic beauty of the place had been spoiled by the houses built around it. In 1969 the woodlands and the pond to the north of the house were acquired by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Naturalists Trust and made into the Henry Stephen/C.S. Lewis Nature Reserve. Following Warnie’s death in 1973, The Kilns changed hands several times. In 1984 it was acquired by the C.S. Lewis Foundation who have restored it.

      NOTES

¹ AMR, entry for 13–25 July, p. 258.

² Ibid., entry for 17–25 March 1924, p. 306.

³ FL, pp. 605–6.

⁴ AMR, p. 265.

⁵ Ibid., p. 267.

⁶ LP VIII, p. 156.

⁷ FL, p. 615.

⁸ AMR, p. 279n.

⁹ Ibid., p. 293.

¹⁰ Collected Poems, p. 243.

¹¹