Today,
Having lost his bedroom key, C.S. Lewis had to enter & exit his bedroom by the exterior stairs |
including Norse, Greek, and Latin
- words in any foreign language were permissible -
Dining room where they played Scrabble |
Where C.S. Lewis chatted and smoked cigarettes with friends in his home |
the C.S. Lewis Foundation decided
to restore the house as to how it looked during WWII,
including blackout curtains
You may remember
the four children in 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe'
sent to the countryside home of an old professor
to find safety during WWII
Likewise, C.S. Lewis housed 4 children (all girls) during the war
Although best known for 'The Chronicles of Narnia' written for children,
Lewis wrote 47 works of non-fiction, 11 fiction, and 4 poetry collections
Both men were professors at Oxford University,
served during WWI
and wrote during WWII
They were passionate about words, languages, myths, and their religious faith
(Tolkien worked for the Oxford English Dictionary
defining words beginning with the letter 'W'
and later was a codebreaker during WWII)
With unusual common interests
and fairy-tale success,
they were two peas in a pod, really
In fact, it was Tolkien who influenced atheist Lewis to become a Christian
Pond and woods on C.S. Lewis's property |
'The Chronicles of Narnia' series and 'The Lord of the Rings'
hold elements from fairy tales and mythology from other cultures
including Norse, Roman, Greek and Persian
aka 'The Bird And The Baby' Pub |
In this pub
the Inklings talked, drank, and shared their latest writing projects,
providing constructive criticism of each others work
from 1939 - 1962
Lewis's 'Screwtape Letters' and Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings'
were brought to the table here
C.S. Lewis died fifty years ago on November 22nd,
the same day President Kennedy was assassinated
and author Aldous Huxley of 'Brave New World' died
After Lewis died,
his furniture and possessions were auctioned off uneventfully
and the multiple acre estate was sold off
Today, 'The Kilns' is no longer a house in the country
but in the middle of a working class neighborhood in Oxford
His pond and woods are open to the public as a Wildlife Trust nature reserve
On November 22nd of this year,
a memorial stone will be placed in C.S. Lewis's honor at
Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey
in the good company of William Shakespeare and Jane Austen
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Fine art print for sale via Jane Heinrichs |
And to think this is how it all started...
''The Lion all began with a picture of a Faun carrying an umbrella
and parcels in a snowy wood.
This picture had been in my mind since I was about sixteen.
Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself,
'Let's try to make a story about it'.''
- C.S. Lewis
He is such a great story
- photos by me -
Tours by appointment only, here
Source: C.S.Lewis Foundation, Wikipedia, Huffington Post
(an unsponsored post)

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