Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Meghan Cox Gurdon: Screwtape Revisited

This (linked in title) appeared on the March 22, 2005, National Review online, under the title Screwtape Revisited. The subhead is "With gratitude (and apologies) to C.S. Lewis."

My guess is that C.S. Lewis wouldn't accept any apologies for this. Meghan Cox Gurdon has added a chapter for our times to the Screwtape Letters. I don't know whether to say "ouch" or "bravo". But, then, I had that problem when I read the original.

Among other available editions, Harper reissued The Screwtape Letters in February 2001. The trade paperback ISBN is 0060652934, the suggested list price is $10.95, and it is in stock at many bookselling sites. It is also available in audio cassette, compact disc, and hardcover.

It has been in print since 1941, and there are many copies of various editions available used.

If I may borrow from Richard Gilman's introduction in the Mentor mass market paperback edition, 1988, ISBN 0451628217:
On July 20, 1940, during the first wartime summer in England, Clive Staples Lewis wrote to his brother Warren: "I [have been] struck by an idea for a book which I think might be useful and entertaining. It would be called 'As one Devil to another' and would consist of letters from an elderly retired devil to a young devil who has just started work on his first 'patient.' The idea would be to give all the psychology of temptation from the other point of view."
And thoughtful readers have been squirming ever since. C.S. Lewis let no one off the hook.

There is a C.S. Lewis Foundation. For a brief history, see: http://www.cslewis.org/about/history.html

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