And the award for 'most brilliant' goes to...

   As y'all know, I have become re-fascinated with The Chronicles of Narnia as of late. But before I could dive into rediscovering that series, I felt that I needed more information about its author--a lot more information. While reading his autobiography (Surprised by Joy) would have been ideal, my library does not have it. However, I did find The C.S. Lewis Chronicles: the Indispensable Biography of the Creator of Narnia, Full of Little-known Facts, Events and Miscellany. It has proved to be a vastly interesting read, and has further increased my awe about this fascinating man. So, I guess that this post will be made of just a few of the facts I have learned about C.S. Lewis.

1. He was actually born Clive Staples Lewis. Very early in his life he nicknamed himself 'Jacks' or 'Jack', and continued to be called such (by family and friends) for the rest of his life.
2. He lived in the north of Ireland during a majority of his life, the landscape of which inspired his idea of the Narnian landscape.
3. He read more than any person I have ever heard of in my entire life. Seriously. There are at least 2 lists in The C.S. Lewis Chronicles detailing the books he read in his life, and they are extensive lists. He is fluent in Latin and Greek before he is 17 years old.
Ok, can't manage to continue the list thing; I guess what happens next will just be fangirly rambling.
This man was seriously, seriously, seriously brilliant. I don't know if it is because the standards for education in 1930s-ish Britain are so much stricter than now, or my own natural scholastic pessimism; either way, I know that there is no way I could do as much as he did scholastically. Even just looking at, say, the topics he discussed with his friends, or the titles of the lectures he gave--they are  amazing. I guess there is a book (or two?) with his lectures gathered together. His passion was medieval literature, and he loved the idea of a 'romance'--which he defines as something that sparks of something of another world. Most of his work, from what I can gather, has to do with this aspect.
 C.S. Lewis was actually a sort of atheist for a good part of his life. This fact surprised me when I first heard it, because of all of the Biblical allusions in the Narnia series. It was only after becoming convinced of the deity of Christ and the truth of the Bible (his statement about his philosophy about why the Bible is true is fascinating; I think another whole blog entry will have to be dedicated to that alone) that he wrote his many theologically-based works.
  I haven't yet finished The C.S. Lewis Chronicles; for now, I am at the part where Lewis is still teaching at Oxford during WWII. However, I have determined, based upon this book (which I fully recommend, by the bye) that my purpose in life is to teach a C.S. Lewis course at my college someday. But, for now, I am just an almost second-semester sophmore, and my mom wants me to get off the computer now. So, until next time, you know that I will be studying more about this insanely genius guy. Adieu, dear ones!

Duriez, Colin. The C.S. Lewis Chronicles: the Indispensable Biography of the Creator of Narnia, Full  of Little-known Facts, Events and Miscellany. New York: BlueBridge, 2005. Print.