Letters to Children

C.S. Lewis (1996)

Editors: Lyle W. Dorsett and Marjorie Lamp Mead

via: Library

Genre: Non-fiction

Pages: 115

Mom and I are humungous C.S. Lewis fans. Far as we’re concerned, if C.S. Lewis books were an Olympic sport, they’d bring home the gold. Both fiction and non-fiction.

You gonna eat that?

Now, you may know Lewis from The Chronicles of Narnia. Probably his best-known and most beloved work. But he wrote like, a ton of other stuff, too. Some of our other faves include Mere Christianity. The Great Divorce. The Problem of Pain.  The Screwtape Letters. Surprised by Joy. And his autobiography, Till We Have Faces. Lewis notes that altho Till We was not a commercial success, it’s his favorite work.

Indeed, we’ve read pretty much everything “Jack” ever published. Except this here puppy. Missed this one. But we found it the other day in the Book Place. Sitting on a shelf. Calling our name. Diving in, this book actually surprised us. Here’s why:

In his life, Lewis received thousands of letters from young fans who were eager for more of his bestselling Narnia books and their author. This book is a collection of many of his responses to those letters, in which he shares his feelings about writing, school, animals, and of course, Narnia. Lewis writes to the children – as he wrote for them – with understanding and respect, proving why he remains one of the most beloved children’s authors of all time.

Rare, Remarkable

Letters to Children offers a rare, luminous glimpse into the heart and mind of a remarkably eloquent and equally gracious genius. There’s so much wit and warmth in Lewis’s letters to young readers. In fact, Lewis carried on a loquacious correspondence with many of his young correspondents for years, even into their adulthood. The sheer volume of his correspondence is astounding. Ditto the amount of wit and whimsy in each letter. It’s remarkable.

Lithe and limber, Lewis’s letters brim with warmth and vitality. They’re perhaps as surprising as they are charming.

Offering advice to a young correspondent, Lewis writes:

1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.
2. Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.
3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “More people died” don’t say “Mortality rose.”

Write On!

There’s more. But our personal favorite on Lewis’s list is:

• In writing. Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”: make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are  only like saying to your readers “Please will you do my job for me.”

Write on, dude.

C.S. Lewis also writes about his health issues, the weather, gardens, and so on. He reads and responds to every letter received personally – in long hand. (Note to young whipper-snappers: That’s called “pen and ink.” Before computers.) Lewis’s responses are soaked in kindness and encouragement. He shows an unflagging interest in each of his young correspondents’ lives, their families, schools, and writing endeavors, often offering encouragement per the last.

More?

When his correspondents ask for more Narnia a stories, Lewis gently explains, “I’m afraid the Narnian series has come to an end.” He urges them to write their own stories. 

We love that!

“It is a funny thing that all the children who have written to me see at once who Aslan is, and grown-ups never do” writes Lewis in the final letter in this tome, typed the day before he died in 1963.

Kimber: Good thing we’re not grown-ups, huh Mom?

Have you read C.S. Lewis?

What’s your fave Lewis book?