Clive Staples Lewis' beloved classic "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" is a fitting selection for this Easter season...
In the first book to be penned in C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, we are introduced to a land where everything is cold and covered with snow, a place where it is always winter but never Christmas. It is Narnia, and it is a spectacular imaginary world which must be entered through a wardrobe. The world of Narnia is inhabited by a variety of fanciful creatures who can and do communicate with the human characters who manage to make their way through the wardrobe and into the snowy white fairyland.
We are aware from the earliest entrance of Lucy, the first human to enter Narnia, that there is a great sense of foreboding in the creatures she encounters there. They are asking for the help of Lucy and her three siblings to overcome the power of the White Witch who has singlehandedly covered the entire land with a coldness that goes much deeper than the snow which covers the surface of the land. She is inherently evil, but she wears a dramatic disguise. And it is with this disguise that she lures Edmond into her trap and thus sets about the events that will eventually lead to the dramatic conclusion when spring returns to Narnia. 
Through the sacrifice of Aslan, which is analogous to that of Christ in Christianity, Edmund is able to be won back from the White Witch and spring finally returns to Narnia.
Clive Staples Lewis was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to Albert J. and Florence Augusta Hamilton Lewis on November 29, 1898. While a boarding Student at Campbell College he developed severe respiratory problems and was sent to Malvern, England, which was known as a health resort particularly suited to helping those with lung problems. C.S., or Jack as he was known to friends and family, attended nearby Cherborg House prep school with his brother Warnie. At the age of 18, he read George MacDonald's Phantastes which had a profound affect on his imagination. 
In April 1917, Lewis entered University College, Oxford, where he studied through September of that year when WWII broke out. He enlisted and was billetted in Keble College at Oxford for officer's training. He served as an officer in the 3rd Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry, and was involved in front line battles. He was wounded during the Battle of Arras in April of 1918, and discharged in December of 1919. Earlier, in February of that year, "Death In Battle" had appeared in Reveille, which was his first published work apart from writings in school magazines. After leaving the army he resumed his studies at Oxford, earning such honors as First in Honour Moderations (Greek and Latin Literature), First in Greats (Philosophy and Ancient History), and First in English.
In the spring of 1930, Lewis purchased "The Kilns" at Oxford jointly with the parents of his best friend and roommate, Paddy Moore, who had died in the war. 
His brother Warnie Lewis, in Brothers and Friends, said of The Kilns, " Jack and I went out and saw the place on Sunday morning,
and I instantly caught the infection: we did not go inside the house,
but the eight acre garden is such stuff as dreams are made of." The two photos above and the one at right are of Lewis' desk in his study at The Kilns. In 1925, he was elected a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, where he served for 29 years as tutor in English Language and Literature.
While there he had many conversations with his colleagues and his brother regarding Christianity. 
One evening in September of 1931 he had a long discussion with his friends J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson which had a profound effect on him. The day after, as he and his brother Warnie were heading by motorcycle to the Whipsnade Zoo, he says of his conversion, "when we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did." This led Lewis to continue conversations and collaborations with his friends Tolkien and Dyson, along with his brother Warnie, Charles Williams, Dr. Robert Havard, Owen Barfield, Weville Coghill and others. 
They adopted the name "The Inklings" for their group and met regularly at "The Eagle and Child" pub, which they affectionately called "The Bird and Baby." The pub is still in business today and is as you see it in the photographs above and right. Many a conversation took place among The Inklings here, and after the war at two other pubs they adopted when The Eagle and Child began to experience beverage shortages due to war rationing.
In 1935, Lewis wrote the classic volume on 16th Century Literature for the Oxford History of English Literature series. Lewis experienced two major events in 1952, as he was awarded the honorary Doctor of Letters degree by Laval University, Quebec and later in the year met Joy Davidman Gresham whom he would marry in 1956. Theirs was initially a marriage of convenience for her, as she needed to obtain British citizenship in order not to be deported by migration authorities. It was thought that she was dying of cancer, and the ceremony was performed at her hospital bedside. She, however, made an unexpected recovery and lived until 1960, just after they discovered her cancer had returned. Lewis died one week before his 65th birthday on Friday, November 22, at at The Kilns. Interestingly enough, his death occurred on the same day that President Kennedy was assassinated and that Aldous Huxley died.
The photo above is of Addison's Walk, a breathtaking spot through which Lewis loved to walk on his way to Magdalen College, Oxford.
(Photo credits: Special thanks to Perry & Robyn Granberry for the lovely photographs.)
