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--Jack’s life : the life story of C.S. Lewis /Douglas Gresham. Nashville : Broadman& Holman, 2005.HBB, 0805432469, list price: $16.99.B or 823/.912. Lewis, C.S. (Clive Staples), 1898-1963; Authors, English--20th century--Biography;Chronicles of Narnia; Narnia (Imaginary place);Christian biography--England. viii, 107 p. : photos. ;21 cm.Adult. Rating : 5.Jack’s Life, by C.S. Lewis’s stepson DouglasGresham, is unlike other biographies that focusprimarily on Lewis as a scholar, or populartheologian, or writer of fantasy. Gresham ismore concerned with Lewis’s daily life and howhe dealt with his often “exceedingly demandingdomestic existence.” Gresham reports in somedetail on the life-changing impact of a promiseJack Lewis made to his army buddy PaddyMoore during World War I, to take care ofPaddy’s mother and sister if the latter died inbattle. In spite of many challenges, Jack stayedfaithful to that commitment until Mrs. Moore’sdeath in 1951. A few years later author JoyDavidman Gresham traveled from the UnitedStates to England and arranged to meet thefamous writer who had been influential in herconversion to Christianity. Her son tells of thefriendship that led through cancer to marriageand a few happy years together. During thattime, Jack accepted the offer of a Chair ofMedieval and Renaissance English Literature atCambridge University, and arranged tocommute from Cambridge to his home inOxford for weekends and during vacations.After Joy’s death, Jack continued to care for histwo stepsons until his own death on November22, 1963.Douglas Gresham had read every biography ofhis famous stepfather, but none merely told “thestory of Jack’s life” as he lived it. So in Jack’sLife, Gresham writes a biography that he wouldhave liked to read. He includes a few pages withblack and white photographs of family andfriends. Douglas Gresham was eight years oldwhen he first met Lewis in 1953, and he wassurprised to find that the stout, slightly balding,professor looked nothing like a character out ofthe Narnia Lewis had created. From living inthe home for several years with Jack and hisbachelor brother Warnie Lewis, Greshamlearned much about Jack’s life in the past andhad opportunity to observe first-handcontemporary situations as they transpired.Gresham recommends and gives credit to twofine biographies of Lewis written by personalfriends of Lewis, George Sayer’s Jack (1994),and Green and Hooper’s C.S. Lewis (1974), aswell as to Hooper’s Companion and Guide (seebelow). In his own earlier autobiography,Lenten Lands, Gresham told the story of themarriage of his mother, Joy Davidman Greshamto C.S. Lewis, and the ten years he shared witha man who was the best Christian he had everknown. In this perceptive portrayal of Jack’slife, Gresham retains his sense of deepappreciation for Lewis as a very human butgodly man. In the accompanying half-hour longDVD “A Conversation with Douglas Gresham,”Gresham describes Lewis as a jovial man, full oflaughter. He also explains his own involvementwith the producers of the 2005 movie of TheLion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to maintain itsintegrity to the original book. Gresham’s style ispersonal and very readable, and is accessible tohigh school as well as adult readers. Highlyrecommended for public, school, church, andhome libraries.--The Narnian : the life and imagination ofC.S. Lewis / by Alan Jacobs. LCCN2005046151. San Francisco :HarperSanFrancisco, 2005.HBB, 0060766905, list price: $25.95.B or 823/.912. Lewis, C.S. (Clive Staples), 1898-1963; Lewis, C.S. (Clive Staples), 1898-1963--Religion; Authors, English--20th century--Biography;Chronicles of Narnia; Narnia (Imaginary place);Christian biography--England; Christian fiction,English--History and criticism; Christianity andliterature--England--History--20th century. xxvi, 342p. : ill. ; 24 cm.Adult. Rating : 4.Alan Jacobs is a professor of English atWheaton College where he has access to theresources of the Marion E. Wade Center. TheWade Center houses a major research collectionof materials related to C.S. Lewis and otherrelated British authors. Jacobs refers to morethan fifty sources, including the eleven volumesof unpublished Lewis Papers compiled by C.S.Lewis’s older brother Major Warren HamiltonLewis. (After the death of their father, Warniemoved in with Jack and spent years inorganizing and typing up the documents theirfather had accumulated. He later compiled thefirst published collection of the Letters of C.S.Lewis.) In his The Narnian, Jacobs narrates thelife of Lewis, bringing out details of the variedsources that had influence on Lewis’s writings.Through each chapter of Lewis’s life, Jacobsincludes significant quotations that illuminatefor the reader their contribution to Lewis’s ownwriting, either explaining a source or pointingout a resulting passage that C.S. Lewis wrotelater. The endnotes section giving references forthese quotations is a particularly useful resource.For example, readers who might be puzzled bycertain passages in Lewis’s Surprised by Joymay find helpful explanations in this wellindexedvolume. In one chapter particularly,Jacobs points out the interaction between Lewisand other literary figures. He especially focuseson the Inklings, the small informal group of likemindedwriters in Oxford that met regularly tohear each other’s writing in progress. Thatgroup included J.R.R. Tolkien, CharlesWilliams, his brother Warren Lewis, and a fewothers that varied from time to time. In hisAfterword, Jacobs discusses the enduring futureof Narnia and high fantasy from a Christianperspective in a modern culture that rejects thevalues of authors like Tolkien and Lewis.The eight pages of plates offer well-chosenblack and white photographs that span the life ofC.S. Lewis. The book includes an index. Thisexcellent book is highly recommended for alllibraries where there is interest in thisspecialized perspective on Lewis.--C.S. Lewis: a complete guide to his life andworks / by Walter Hooper. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996.PAP, 006063880X, list price: $19.95.B or 823/.912. Lewis, C.S. (Clive Staples), 1898-1963; Lewis, C.S. (Clive Staples), 1898-1963--Religion; Authors, English--20th century--Biography;Chronicles of Narnia; Narnia (Imaginary place);Christian biography--England; Christian fiction,English--History and criticism; Christianity andliterature--England--History--20th century. xvi, 940 p.; 24 cm.Adult. Rating : 4.Walter Hooper’s C.S. Lewis : a Complete Guideto His Life and Works was originally publishedin a hardbound edition under the title of C.S.Lewis : a Companion and Guide. This volumeof over nine hundred pages begins with a “Lifeof C.S. Lewis” and a six-page chronology of hislife. Lewis’s writings are grouped by juvenilia(Boxen), poetry, autobiographical, novels,theological fantasies, theology, Chronicles ofNarnia, and literary criticism. For each title ineach category, Hooper provides several pageswith date of publication, the background and asummary of the work, followed by excerptsfrom representative reviews. Next, threeparticularly useful sections are each arrangedalphabetically, with frequent cross-references:key ideas, who’s who, and what’s what. Entriesvary in length from a single paragraph to severalpages. Then a comprehensive bibliography ofthe writings of C.S. Lewis includes: books; shortstories; books edited or with prefaces by C.S.Lewis; essays, pamphlets and miscellaneouspieces; single short poems; book reviews;published letters. Many of the single shorterpieces are also included in posthumouslypublished collections, edited primarily byHooper. The extensive index does not includethe bibliography.Walter Hooper first came to England to meetC.S. Lewis in June 1963. After reading hisbooks and some years of correspondence,Hooper hoped to write about Lewis. Lewisbefriended the young American and soon askedhim to meet his need for a secretary. AfterLewis resigned from Cambridge because ofpoor health, his books and other belongings inhis rooms there were brought to Oxford, andHooper began to organize them. He left inSeptember to fulfill his commitment to teach acourse at the University of Kentucky, intendingto return to England in January 1964 to continuehis work with the Lewis papers. After C.S.Lewis’s death in November 1963, the LewisD E C E M B E R 2 0 0 5 6 C H R I S T I A N L I B R A R Y J O U R N A L