Will Vaus

While I've been perusing C. S. Lewis' personal library at the Wade Center this week, I've also come across some of Lewis' favorite quotes from G. K. Chesterton. Here are just a few, underlined in Lewis' copy of  Chesterton's  Orthodoxy : "You can make a story out of a hero among dragons; but not out of a dragon among dragons. The fairy tale discusses what a sane man will do in a mad world. The sober realistic novel of to-day discusses what an essential lunatic will do in a dull world." "Nietzsche started a nonsensical idea that men had once sought as good what we now call evil; if it were so we could not talk of surpassing or even falling short of them. How can you overtake Jones if you walk in the other direction?" "But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, 'Do it again' to the sun.... It may be that he has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and g...

This week I have been at the Marion E. Wade Center in Wheaton, Illinois doing research for a new book I am writing on the top ten authors and books that influenced C. S. Lewis' vocational attitude and philosophy of life. #1 on that Top Ten list is George MacDonald (pictured above) and his book, Phantastes . As part of my research I have been perusing all the MacDonald books from Lewis' library now part of the collection at the Wade. Here are some of my favorite MacDonald quotes, also favorites of Lewis, that I have come across in my research: From  The Miracles of Our Lord : "God's greatest work has never been done in crowds, but in closets; and when it works out from thence, it is not upon crowds but upon individuals. A crowd is not a divine thing. It is not a body. Its atoms are not members one of another." "The man who prays, in proportion to the purity of his prayer, becomes a spiritual power, a nerve from the divine brain, yea, perhaps a gangl...

On Sunday I head to the midwest for two "Speaking of Jack" book-signings. The first one will be in Indianapolis on Monday, October 24,  7-9 p.m. at  Second Presbyterian Church,  7700 N. Meridian Street, Room 112. This meeting will be with the Central Indiana C. S. Lewis Society. I will be talking about C. S. Lewis' experience of spiritual direction with Father Walter Adams. Then on Saturday, October 29, at 11:15 am I will be speaking and signing books at the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College (pictured above). For more information click here: Wade Center News

William O'Flaherty of the "C. S. Lewis Minute" podcast recently interviewed me about my book, Speaking of Jack: A C. S. Lewis Discussion Guide . You can listen to the first part of that interview here: C. S. Lewis Minute