I had wondered if there were such a thing as an "official" biography i.e.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Officia ... e&ie=UTF-8

http://www.cslewis.com/us/about-cs-lewis/

Just as an update, I'm really enjoying Lenten Lands by Douglas Gresham!  I'm about halfway through it at the moment. He writes really well — his style is quite reminiscent of Lewis at times, I think! — and it's very interesting to hear what Joy was really like, and what her relationship with "Jack" was like, straight from someone who was so close to them.

Meanwhile Gresham's later book, Jack's Life, has also arrived, so I'll go straight on with that after I've finished this one!

Now I've finished both Douglas Gresham's books and I must say they were really worth it!

Lenten Lands is beautifully written — they both are — and full of really interesting insights into what it was like to be there, as young Douglas was, while Joy and Jack got to know each other and gradually fell in love, and how incredibly strong she was all through her years of illness, and what remarkable people they both were. Much better to have that directly from someone who was there at the time and who knew them both better than almost anyone else, than reading someone else's mushy cliché-ridden romantic fiction about it. (I'm referring to Becoming Mrs Lewis, which as I described in another thread, I started out reading recently and just couldn't get through it.)

I did feel Lenten Lands fizzled out towards the end, after both Joy and Jack had died and Gresham then goes into the story of his own marriage and family — which is interesting in its own right, but more and more off topic from the main part of the book, and then he ends it really abruptly with the death of Warnie Lewis. But that was the only downside of the book, and not a major one.

Jack's Life was, in its own way, possibly even better. It's quite a short biography and obviously aimed at young readers, but that makes it all the more readable. I've ploughed through enough academic-style biographies (not only of Lewis, but of other historical figures) and it's more than a little refreshing to read one that's friendly and chatty rather than scholarly!! Gresham, understandably, barely says anything even a little negative about Lewis, but he's not actually putting him on a pedestal — he shows that Lewis was a real human being with human flaws like any of us, but he was able to overcome self-centredness and pride to a huge degree and live a remarkably unselfish and humble life in the face of major hardships. Gresham also doesn't hesitate to attribute Lewis's great qualities to the fact that he was a devoted Christian and always striving to live up to what his faith demanded of him ("walking the talk", as the saying goes nowadays).

This biography naturally didn't go into the depths of analysis that many of them do, but I didn't feel it needed to. Reading it made me feel like I was getting to know more of Lewis as he really was as a person, rather than what some distant, scholarly, outside observer thought he was or should have been. Very highly recommended to anyone who's interested, even if you've read other Lewis biographies before! (I wish I could have read this book when I was 7 or 8 years old and first becoming besotted with all things Narnian — I'd have loved it — but it hadn't yet been written then.)

I might just add, too, that Douglas Gresham has an excellent, very engaging writing style that's a delight to read — I'd definitely go so far as to say he takes after his stepfather!!  

Great to read your comments!
I believe Lenten Lands began as a memoir and interviews, so sometimes it flows well as a biography and at others it does chunks that overlap a bit with other chunks.
I do hope Doug will have time when he is in his 80s to catch up the later half of his life, though.
I like your thought of his taking after Jack; of course he had a very intelligent mother who wrote and spoke very articulately and creatively, and his father was also a published novelist. Imagine living in that house filled with clever creative people and NOT being a good speaker/writer?

I like your thought of his taking after Jack; of course he had a very intelligent mother who wrote and spoke very articulately and creatively, and his father was also a published novelist. Imagine living in that house filled with clever creative people and NOT being a good speaker/writer?

Good point! I haven't read any of Joy's writings (so far!), so I can't compare, but I should think she must have been an influence on Douglas's writing as well.

This seems a good place to observe Jack's birthday, 121 years ago.

When he died in 1963 he was one week away from his 65th birthday.

Thank you, Jack Lewis, for all your work and kindness.

This also seems a good place to remember Walter Hooper, Lewis's personal secretary in the last few months of his life, who became one of his first biographers and devoted his life to ensuring Lewis's works remained in print and widely available. Hooper passed away yesterday (7 December) at the age of 89, as I've just learned from NarniaWeb's news section.

My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this sad time, but he certainly "had a good innings" (as my mum would say) and did so much to help preserve Lewis's legacy for future generations, including us and hopefully many more to come!

I did some searching online and found this excellent tribute to Hooper that shows a lot more of the scope of what he did, how deeply Lewis's works touched him and how important they still are to the world: National Review: Walter Hooper, R.I.P. Really worth reading.

Meanwhile, the main thing that springs to mind for me is the ending of Past Watchful Dragons, Hooper's own commentary on the Chronicles of Narnia and how and why Lewis came to write them, which I first read when I was still a very young Narnia fan and I've come back to it many times since. (Also highly recommended, for anyone who hasn't already read it, especially for his sections on the "Lefay Fragment" and the parallels between Narnia and the Bible.)

Hooper ends the book on a personal note, describing how Lewis, after years of ill health, was admitted to a nursing home in July 1963 in a critical condition and not expected to survive — until he suddenly awoke from the coma "and asked for his tea, completely ignorant that he had been so close to death." Hooper spent a lot of time talking with him after this and eventually decided he'd better tell Lewis how close he had actually been to dying. His description of Lewis's response, and the way he concludes the book, never fail to move me — and I think they stand as a tribute to Hooper himself as well:

In the end I gave in and told him about the coma from which it was not expected that he would recover... And all the while I attempted to comfort him as best I could. He listened spellbound, his eyes glowing with excitement. "Dear Walter," he said when I finished, "I am glad you have not left me a stranger to that which concerns me most deeply." And then, seeing how afraid I was that he might die soon, he set about comforting me....

Observing his peaceful acceptance of death — there was nothing regretful about it — I said, "You know, you really do believe all the things you've written." His eyes opened wide with surprise. "Of course!", he said. "That's why I wrote them." I know he was tantalized by the fact that he had almost passed the last frontier separating him from our true country, and after he came home he dictated many letters describing his feelings about the experience in the nursing home. He began one: "The door was open, but as I started through it was closed in my face." Then, turning to me, he added, "I would rather have died, but apparently it is my duty to live. I am happy to do either, but — oh, I would like to have gone through that door."

A few months later — the same day, and I think the same hour, that John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas — the door opened again. This time he went through.

(Walter Hooper, Past Watchful Dragons, pp. 134-5)

R.I.P. Walter Hooper — and thank you for all you've done.