C. S. Lewis' Letters to Children

As I have noted before in this blog, out of the hundreds of published C. S. Lewis letters my favorites are the ones Lewis wrote to some of his child readers of the Narnia stories. And out of those letters to children, Lewis' letters to Laurence Krieg (pictured above) and his mother are, perhaps, the most priceless.

Laurence's mother originally wrote to Mr. Lewis because her son was concerned that he was loving Aslan more than Jesus. Lewis wrote back and said, among other things, "Laurence can't really love Aslan more than Jesus, even if he feels that's what he is doing. For the things he loves Aslan for doing or saying are simply the things Jesus really did and said." (Letters to Children, 6 May 1955)

Through the miracle of the Internet I have been in touch with Laurence over the past couple of years. Just recently, Laurence read the manuscript of my new book, The Hidden Story of Narnia, and here is what he had to say about it:

"The Hidden Story of Narnia gives us a wonderful link between the themes of The Chronicles of Narnia and Scripture, both Old and New Testaments. The author is deeply familiar with a broad variety of Lewis's other writings, and adds a lot of depth to the fiction, rooting it in the soil of his more serious material. The questions at the end of each chapter also provide a good springboard for discussion, as well as inspiration for personal reflection."

You may read more about Laurence Krieg and his correspondence with C. S. Lewis here: http://home.comcast.net/~krieg5208/Lewis/index.htm
And here is an image of one of Lewis' letters to Laurence:

Comments

Anonymous said…

Many thanks for this post! I enjoyed the link over to Laurence's site and reading the correspondence between Lewis and Laurence's mother. Of particular interest to me was the mother's concern over Laurence's interest in his Sunday School lessons, and Lewis' reply allowing the "hard and dry" to have its place, even in the study of Scripture. I had just recently Lewis' essay "The Parthenon and the Optative" from the collection On Stories, was considering Lewis' point on the subject. As a teacher, I find Lewis' thoughts on education (Abolition of Man, etc.) more relevant today than ever.

11:25 AM

Will Vaus said…

Glad you liked the post wanderingtree! I checked out your blog and enjoyed that too. Wish I could go with you for your three work summer program at Oxford. I have been in the past to various summer theology programs there and it was wonderful. English would be quite enjoyable too. I agree that Lewis' thoughts on education are more relevant than ever. Looks like you are doing a good job on that score in your work life. I hope you will read "The Hidden Story of Narnia" when it comes out and recommend it to your students! Blessings....

11:47 AM

amateur idler said…

Thank you for the link. I especially enjoyed those particular letters when I read them a year or two ago - because I worried about the same thing when I was little!

12:02 AM

Will Vaus said…

You are welcome Kelsey!

8:15 AM

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