In this season we’re reading several letter collections of C. S. Lewis, but in today’s episode we turn to the letters of his brother, Warnie Lewis. Dr. Diana Pavlac Glyer and Dr. Don W. King join David to discuss The Major and the Missionary, the correspondence between Warren Lewis and missionary, Blanche Biggs.
S7E10: “The Major and the Missionary” (Download)
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Show Notes
Introduction
Quote-of-the-week
Follow along in a compelling drama, as two strangers – wise, articulate, passionate, mature followers of Christ – become pen pals, then friends and confidants. Listen to their voices. Watch hope rise as they make plans to finally meet face to face. Their story is rich in insight. It is deeply human and profoundly moving. Hearing their own story in their own words has changed my life. I hope it will touch yours.
Dr. Diana Pavlac Glyer, The Major and the Missionary (Introduction)
Biographical Information
Dr. Glyer has been on Pints With Jack many times, most recently for our #CSLewisReadingDay episode. She is an award-winning writer who has spent more than 40 years combing through archives and studying old manuscripts, and has read every single word of every single Inkling.
Her scholarship, her teaching, and her work as an artist all circle back to one common theme: creativity thrives in community.
Biographical Information for Dr. Diana Pavlac Glyer
Dr. Don W. King has taught at Montreat College for forty-seven years, teaching courses in British literature with a focus on Shakespeare, Chaucer, Milton, Romantic literature, Victorian literature, and 20th century British literature.
He’s been on our show before to talk about Jack’s poetry, Joy Davidman’s poetry, and most recently to discuss his own book on Warnie Lewis, “Soldier, Writer, Inkling:
Biographical Information for Dr. Don W. King
A Life of Warren Hamilton Lewis”…
Chit-Chat
–
Toast
- David: Yorkshire Gold
- Dr. Glyer: PG Tips (Extra Strength)
- Dr. King: Bigelow Green Tea
Discussion
01. “Who is Warnie?”
Q. Dr. King, could you please share some of Warren Lewis’ backstory?
- Paradise Lost by John Milton
- Milton’s Comus by John Milton
- Warren H. Lewis Papers
- Brothers and Friends: The Diaries of Major Warren Hamilton Lewis by Warren H. Lewis
02. “Correspondence Discovery”
Q. Dr. Glyer, how did you come across Warnie Lewis’ correspondence with Blanche Biggs?
I have no intention of explaining how the correspondence which I now offer to the public fell into my hands.
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (Preface)
- The Wade Center
- The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community by Diana Glyer
- Letters to an American Lady by C.S. Lewis
03. “Preserving the Past”
Q. Dr. King, how is it that we have both sides of this correspondence? What’s a “carbon copy”?
04. “What does an Editor do?”
Q. What was involved the process of turning this correspondence into a book?
- Letters to Malcolm by C.S. Lewis
05. “There’s a stage play?!”
Q. I’ve heard you make reference to a stage play of this story. What you can you tell us about it?
06. “Storge: First contact”
Q. Since “storge” love is about the familiar, Dr. King, how did Blanche and Warnie first enter each other’s lives?
07. “Philia: Becoming friends”
Q. In The Four Loves, Jack says that the typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, “What? You too? I thought I was the only one.” What was it that transitioned this correspondence into the realm of friendship?
The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, ‘What? You too? I thought I was the only one.’
C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
08. “Eros: More than friends?”
Q. On to eros… Warnie’s brother tells us that “When the two people who… discover that they are on the same secret road are of different sexes, the friendship which arises between them will very easily pass… into erotic love”. Warnie and Blanche… did they, as we English like to say, “fancy each other”?
I hope I live to see you…
Warren H. Lewis, Letter to Blanche Biggs
- The Book of Common Prayer by The Episcopal Church
09. “Charity: Love of the brenthren”
Q. In Jack’s radio recording of The Four Loves, he defines Agape/Charity as “God’s love for man and the Christian love for the brethren”. We’ve already spoken about their discussions about Christian love for the brethren in the sense of ecumenism. Is there anything else you’d like to say about that, otherwise, I’d love to “Bandersnatch” this pair… How did Warnie and Blanche influence each other?
“Let us by all means pray for one another: it is perhaps the only from of “‘work for re-union’ which never does anything but good.”
C. S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady
10. “Wider Influence”
Q. In your introduction you wrote that these letters had changed your life. In what ways do you think these letters will touch the lives of others?
These letters have the power to rehabilitate our understanding of the Major.
Walter Hooper regarding the discovery of the Warnie-Blanche correspondence
Wrap-Up
More Information
- Diana Glyer Website
- The Rabbit Room
- Dr. Don King @ Montreat College
- The Major and the Missionary: The Letters Of Warren Hamilton Lewis And Blanche Biggs
