C.S. Lewis: A Biography (1990 book)

From Tolkien Gateway
This article is about 1990 biography by Wilson. For the earlier biography by Green and Hooper, see C.S. Lewis: A Biography (1974 book).
C.S. Lewis: A Biography
Cs lewis wilson.jpg
AuthorA.N. Wilson
PublisherWilliam Collins Sons & Co
Released1st Edition February 1990
FormatHardback in dustwrapper
ISBN0002151375

C.S. Lewis: A Biography, a book by A.N. Wilson, includes various remarks on C.S. Lewis by J.R.R. Tolkien, taken from manuscript notes in books from Tolkien's library. The book also includes extracts from letters previously published in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien.[1][2]

Reception[edit | edit source]

According to Douglas Gresham, one of the two stepsons of C.S. Lewis, Wilson's book is:

the worst book I have ever read about Jack. It is my opinion that though well written in a sort of sensationalist journalism style, it is so full of errors and untruths as to be valueless to any serious scholar. As I have said before, if while studying C.S. Lewis, you read the wrong biography, you wind up studying the wrong C.S. Lewis. You can find yourself trying to make sense out of the study of a completely fictional character. I think the best biography of Jack is Jack: C.S. Lewis and His Times by George Sayer.
—Douglas Gresham[3]

From the cover/back[edit | edit source]

"An accomplished biography...Wilson is a very clever, fluent, and engaging writer, with many of the traits that he attributes to his subject: a 'constantly intelligent conversational quality,' 'a flair for the quick, sharp character sketch, and a 'bedrock of common sense.'" THE NEW REPUBLIC

A.N. Wilson shows in this brilliant new biography, that C.S. Lewis, the man, was every bit as multifaceted as C.S. Lewis the writer. Gregerious friend, bullying debater, heavy drinker, and smoker. A man whose relationships with women boggled even those closest to him. C.S. Lewis was all of these things, and A.N. Wilson has succeeded, as no previous biographer has done, in bringing this generous, passionate, opinonated, deeply troubled, and marvelously gifted man to life.

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR

References