C. S. Lewis:
The man behind Narnia and other Far-away places.
As a four year old boy, Clive Staples Lewis had a dog named Jacksie. Jacksie was killed by a car and shortly after his pet's death Clive announce that his new name was Jacksie (Whitch was shortened to Jack). This name is the name that his friends knew him as, but not only as 'Jack Lewis' but as a British novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist.
Some of Jack's well known and loved books are The Space Trilogy, Mere Christianity, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and The Chronicles of Narnia. Some of these (One series in particular that I'm talking about) colorfully written books are considered 'Fiction' but some would debate that matter. The Chronicles of Narnia are an absolutely great example of truth behind Fiction. There are many things in Narnia that represent people, places and things in Lewis's life (and in our lives as well). One of those people in these books in Digory Kirke, a boy who in many ways, represents Lewis himself. In the book, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Magician's Nephew, Digory, being a boy who live in the time that Jack was a boy, had a mother who was very sick and was going to die. This is very much like Jack's own personal life.
C. S. Lewis was seven when his family moved into "Little Lea" this was the home in which Jack grew up and and it was in the Strandtown area of East Belfast Ireland. Jack and his brother Warrnie used to hide in a wardrobe and create their own world that they had named Boxen. Jack loved books and he felt that finding a book to read was as easy as walking in a field and "finding a new blade of grass." Jack's mother Florance Lewis died of cancer in 1908 shortly after her death Jack was sent to a boarding school where he would join his brother.
When Jack had turned 15 he abandoned Christianity and became an atheist, he was interested in mythology and was awed at legends and songs, he also grew to love nature.
Jack experienced trench warfare when he left his scholarship at Oxford and volunteered in the British Army in 1917. The next year on the 15th of April a English shell, falling short of its target wounded Lewis. When he recovered in October, he was assigned to duty in Andover, England and was discharged in December of 1918. Soon after he returned to his studies. Although when Jack first experienced England he disliked it horribly and thought that the accents and landscape were awful, but later in life he grew to like it. In 1930, Jack and his brother moved, along with Mrs. Moore and her daughter Maureen (Edward "Paddy" Moore had been on of Jack's fellow cadets and close friend in training for the army, but was killed in 1918, therefore, Jack and his brother took care of Paddy's mother and sister, the Moores). There four moved into "The Kilns" which was a house that all of them contributed financially to purchase on the outskirts of Oxford.
J. R. R. Tolkien played quite a big role in Jack's life, as well as being one of his good friends, and a fellow writer and part of the 'Inklings' club, Tolkien was a main part of getting Jack to come back to Christianity. Tolkien, being a Roman Catholic, hoped that Jack would become one as well but Jack chose to become a member of the Church of England.
Joy Gresham, (also know as Joy Davidman) a American writer who had a Jewish background, and also a convert from atheism and Christianity, became great friends with Jack. After Joy's visit to the UK, she and Jack were married and her and her two sons, David and Douglass, came to live with Jack. After complaining of a painful hip, Joy was diagnosed with terminal bone cancer. This was very sad news for Jack and his two step-sons, but Joy's cancer soon went into a brief remission, and the couple lived together with David, Douglas, and Warrnie Lewis as a family. Joy's cancer went into relapse and she died in 1960.
In early June of 1961, Jack was diagnosed with inflammation of the kidneys which caused blood poisoning. His health began improving throughout the next year, and in April, he returned to his post at Cambridge. Jack's health continued to improve and his friend, George Sayer, considered Jack to be back to himself again by spring in 1963. On the 15th of July 1963, Jack once more fell ill and was admitted into a hospital. 5:00 pm the next day, Jack suffered a heart attack and entered into a coma, and unexpectedly awoke 21 hours later. He was discharged from the hospital and returned to the Kilns, but he was too ill to return to work and resigned from Cambridge in August. His health continued to deteriorate and in mid-November, Jack was diagnosed with end stage renal failure.
November 22, 1963.
Media coverage was going crazy about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, who had been fatally shot while riding in a Presidential motorcade in Dallas, Texas. Needless to say, that day was one of the most chaotic then any other, Americans were devastated when they heard that their beloved President, JFK, was dead. However, something else happened that day that media seemed to push aside. At 5:30 pm the well-known and respected author scholar and academic, C. S. Lewis (or Jack as we've been brought to calling him) collapsed in his bedroom and died minutes later, this was exactly one week before his 65th birthday.
Jack was bitterly mourned for after his death, but his stories, poems, letters, legacy and faith live on.
