LEWIS (C.S.) Autograph letter signed ("C.S. Lewis"), to Rufus Buxton, giving him what advice he can on his poetry, 1943
LEWIS (C.S.)
Autograph letter signed ("C.S. Lewis"), to Rufus Buxton, giving him what advice he can on his poetry, while confessing himself "quite incapable of helping people about this kind of poetry, 'modern' poetry in the technical sense of the word 'modern'": "My appreciation of Eliot himself... is v. limited and even when I get pleasure from him I am quite doubtful whether it is the kind of pleasure he intended to give. I am almost afraid to say anything for fear I shd. mislead you. I liked many of the images and disliked all the gnomic-cryptic passages... – but as I do in Eliot and I haven't the least idea whether I'm right in either case... I suspect the whole thing is a bit too like Eliot: but one wd. have to be much more 'in the movement' than I am to say where fruitful discipleship ends and mere 'derivativeness' begins"; in a postscript he apologizes for his handwriting ("...I have had to write nearly continuously for nearly 4 hrs. this morning..."), 2 pages, paperclip stain, one or two (?coffee) stains and slight dust-staining on second page, 8vo, Magdalen, Oxford, 26 May 1943
Sold for £1,250 inc. premium

Footnotes

  • C.S. LEWIS ON T.S. ELIOT AND MODERN POETRY: the recipient, later second Baron Noel-Buxton, published several books of poems, including No Smooth Journey (1938) and The Ford (1955), with a preface by Masefield. Eliot himself at Faber's was to publish Westminster Wader: being an estimate of Westminster in all ages by one who longs for muddy water, and the return of the bittern to London Fen (1957), a book which reflects the socialist peer's passion for wading rivers, ancient history and bird-watching.

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