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Lot 165
LEWIS (C.S.) Two autograph letters signed ("C.S. Lewis"), to Justin Ritchie ("Dear Ritchie"); the first, listing authors he should read in coming up to Oxford, Magdalen College, Oxford, 6 July 1940 and 9 March 1944
15 June 2016, 14:00 BST
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £1,500 inc. premium
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LEWIS (C.S.)
Two autograph letters signed ("C.S. Lewis"), to Justin Ritchie ("Dear Ritchie"); the first, listing authors he should read in coming up to Oxford, in Latin ("...All in Loeb: if weak at Latin, read the English mainly and turn to the Latin page for the exciting bits...") and English ("...but anything (in English & before 1870) wh. happens to take your fancy will do good and not harm. The great thing is to be always reading and to get as many books as you can afford. When in doubt whether to buy a pair of trousers or a book, buy a book!..."), telling him he'd better get to know his bible and the classics; the second letter written after Ritchie had left Oxford and was serving in the Italian campaign, sending, at the suggestion of Ritchie's father, a book ("...Whether when I was a subaltern on active service I wd. have welcomed a book by one's old tutor on the recommendation of one's father – specially when the paper was much too thick to be used for any humbler purposes – is ʻa question not to be asked.' Every fresh letter from your people in furrin' parts shatters a geographical illusion. Carthage, Baghdad, Damascus – all seem equally nasty when you get there...") and agreeing with him about turncoat politicians ("...the M.P. for Bray..."), 4 pages, 8vo and 16mo, Magdalen College, Oxford, 6 July 1940 and 9 March 1944
Footnotes
ʻWHETHER IN DOUBT TO BUY A PAIR OF TROUSERS OR BOOK – BUY A BOOK!' – C.S. Lewis to one of his English students, providing a succinct overview of the field of Latin and English literature, and humorously paralleling his attitude as a subaltern in the First World War – Lewis having been wounded at Arras – with Ritchie's in the second. Ritchie was serving in Italy in 1944 and after the war became an English teacher. The letters have been in the family since then and are not published in Letters of C. S. Lewis, edited W. H. Lewis (1966).