No C.S. Lewis fan can possibly live a meaningful life without this book.
When I greedily approached "C.S. Lewis: Mere Christian" I was no stranger to the world and writings of C.S. Lewis. I've been studying his work for over a decade. But Lindskoog's book opened up realms of understanding about the man and his thought that I could not possibly have held together and formulated on my own. Her knowledge of each area of Lewis' thought is not only the knowledge of a well-read enthusiast (as mine may perhaps be), but here in her work one gets the sense of a profound scholar who has actually met the man. (And she did, by the way). She speaks with such authority that each summary dazzles the reader, awakening an important point hitherto unrealized. Here you will not find a boring half-hearted amalgam of foot-noted facts, but a living and cohesive story worthy of the depth and consistency of C.S. Lewis himself.
For instance, in my favorite chapter, entitled "Prayer" the author cites Lewis' marvelous poem of the same name, and comments that "he warned readers not to take the last line too seriously." This, I realized much later, is an allusion to Lewis' own comments in a book of his own, entitled "Prayer: Letters To Malcolm". Not many of us are blessed with such a concordance-like Lindskoogian grasp of Lewis' thought. And truly, that is the beauty of her achievement here. As you are gripped by her easy flowing writing style, you almost forget that you are getting a Ph.D. in Lewisology. Reading this book is like cramming forty topically-arranged C.S. Lewis books into your head with the ease and delight of sipping a cup of coffee.
And this brings me to my vacation.
When I took "Mere Christian" along with me to Vancouver Island one fine summer, I found that instead of enjoying the ocean as much as I should have, I was more likely to be found tucked away in some coffee shop... taking notes on napkins, looking up only long enough to see that the sun had gone down.
This book makes you crazy like that.
C.S. Lewis died thirteen days before I was born. I have often wished, and wished sincerely, that I could have talked with this man who has meant so much to me in my life. I look forward to doing so in heaven. This book is the closest I have come to doing so on earth.

Getting inside the mind of Lewis is the great accomplishment of Kathryn Lindskoog. She does a wonderful job summarizing the thinking of CS Lewis. Those who are fascinated with Lewis, a man who I believe was quite mysterious in his private world but fairly public with his writing, will devour this book. Here you will learn about Lewis' thoughts on smoking and drinking (he knew smoking was a bad idea, but he was not a teetotaler); that next to Christianity, dualism makes the most sense (interesting!); and the fact that Lewis gave 2/3rds of his money to charity--and why.

This gives you an idea of the information available to us through the good biographer Lindskoog. She does not fail to support herself with endnotes, and one of the 5 appendices gives a calendar of how you could read a Lewis book every month during the year (with suggestions based on the season). I might have to try it myself, though I've already read most of what is suggested. (Nothing wrong with rereading Lewis!) To fully cover a man who authored more than 50 books, Lindskoog has done a wonderful service by writing this book.

First of all, let me qualify my comments by saying that I am an ARDENT and DEVOTED C.S. Lewis fan. I have two shelves in one of my six sagging bookcases exclusively devoted to C.S. Lewis' works alone. Long ago, I committed myself to reading at least one book by Lewis each month of the year, and I have faithfully kept up this practice for many years now. I say all of this only to introduce myself as a somewhat enlightened Lewis-monger. When I greedily approached the book "C.S. Lewis: Mere Christian" I was no stranger to the world and writings of C.S. Lewis. But this book by Kathryn Lindskoog opened up realms (literal "realms") of understanding about the man and his thought that I could not possibly have held together and formulated on my own. Her knowledge of each area of Lewis' thought is not only the knowledge of a well-read enthusiast (as mine may perhaps be), but here in her work one gets the sense of a profound scholar who has actually met the man. She speaks with such authority that each summary dazzles the reader, awakening an important point hitherto unrealized. Here you will not find a boring half-hearted amalgam of foot-noted facts, but a living and cohesive STORY worthy of the depth and consistency of C.S. Lewis. For instance, in my favorite chapter, entitled "Prayer" the author cites Lewis' marvelous poem of the same name, and comments that "he warned readers not to take the last line too seriously." This is an allusion to Lewis' own comments in a later book of his own, entitled "Prayer: Letters To Malcolm". Not many of us are blessed with such a concordance-like Lindskoogian grasp of Lewis' thought. And truly, that is the beauty of her achievement here. As you are gripped by her easy flowing writing style, you almost forget that you are getting a Ph.D. in Lewisology. Reading this book is like cramming forty topically-arranged C.S. Lewis books into your head with the ease and delight of sipping a cup of coffee. And this brings me to my vacation. When I took "Mere Christian" along with me to Vancouver Island one fine summer, I found that instead of enjoying the ocean as much as I should have... too often I was rather tucked away in some coffee shop... taking notes on napkins, looking up only long enough to see that the sun had gone down. C.S. Lewis died thirteen days before I was born. I have often wished, and wished sincerely, that I could have talked with this man who has meant so much to me in my life. I look forward to doing so in heaven. This book is the closest I have come to doing so on earth.

. . .this remarkable bit of literary detection by Mrs. Lindskoog.

Informed hobbits have known for quite some time that there have been serious issues of legitimacy and integrity surrounding the writings and literary legacy of CS Lewis, close friend and fellow Inkling of our own great Professor. In this volume, Mrs. Lindskoog traces the history and lineage of Lewis' literary legacy and demonstrates that there has, in all likelyhood, been a great deal of fraud and deceit practiced upon lovers of Lewis by a number of individuals who should have known better.

This hobbit can only hope that Mrs. Lindskoog's book quickly returns to print and is widely read and disseminated among those of our fellows who truly loved Mr. Lewis and respected his legitimate work.

All true lovers of the writings and person of C.S. Lewis, and all academics interested in Lewis from a literary standpoint will benefit greatly from this book.

Lindskoog pins down, through incredible academic detective work, what many of us suspected for some time, but were unable to voice or prove, namely, that Lewis's "literary executors" have tried (and in many cases succeeded) in pulling the wool over our eyes!

Lindskoog has demonstrated that many of the quaint little stories about bonfires, lost manuscripts, personal secretaries, etc. have, in many cases, been outright fabrications foisted on an unsuspecting public. It's a shame that in the confusion following Lewis's death, a better executor could not have been found; perhaps, if this had been the case, much trouble would have been averted.

Well, it's all water under the bridge now. The truth is out there, and real Lewis scholars know what it is. Dr. Hooper and his cronies have been thoroughly discredited. Now if only he would quit writing introductions. . .

Lord Acton said that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. St. Paul said that the love of money is the root of all evil. These two principles have combined in the C. S. Lewis literary estate. As one of the many economically foolish things CSL did in his life, he left the management of his literary estate to two friends who did not have the experience or time to manage it. At the first opportunity his friends unloaded the management upon the first person handy, a student from America who was keenly interested in Lewis' books and occasionally visited him in the last summer of his life.

Predictable results occurred. This person wielded power over publishers who made huge profits from the books. He had the power to say which academics had access to certain Lewis archives and which got permission to quote Lewis. The publishers had to include this person's book introductions in which he rewrote himself in a favorable light into history. Ambitious specialists needed to agree with the claims. One such claim was that this person was Lewis' live in, full time, private secretary for several years. This person also "discovered" many unknown Lewis literary works and revisions of existing works that were significantly lower in literary quality than the original, known Lewis literature and in some cases contained religious and ethical themes that were the exact opposite of Lewis' adamantly held views.

In this book Kathryn Lindskoog does a thorough job of investigative journalism in deflating much of the rewritten history and "new" Lewis works with documentary evidence and eye witness accounts. This book reads much like a Chapman Pincher espionage expose. This book attracted much attention, and further eye witness accounts and leads to more documentary evidence and was followed by a second book, "Light in the Shadow Lands," five years later.

One of the few Christian book on women that is really insightful and funny. Here is an example, the author wonders why do lots of Christian throughout history thinks Man is better than Woman by baseing the argument on that Adam was created first. Well, if you look at Genesis closely, you'll find that the human race is the crown of all creation and it is created last. So logically, Woman should be the crown of all creation since she is created last. Many other insightful comments.

this is a powerful book, and for Narnia lovers every where! I urge you to read this Book! it explains alot of the stuff That i didn't understand,like About Aslan creating earth not god. And helped me to basically understand! Thank you!

I am a very big CS Lewis fan, particularly of his non-fiction. I finally read the Narnia series and enjoyed it as everyone said that I would. The Lion of Judah in Never-Never Land gets to the heart of why I liked Narnia. Lindskoog shows the connection between the Narnia series and the rest of Lewis' theology as set forth in his non-fiction and other fictional works. The great thing to me was that she did not stop at the most obvious and transparent religious parallels that are found in Narnia. She digs into Narnia and brings out many insightful and important religious points where you probably missed them when you read Narnia last. After you read this, you'll want to sit down and read Narnia all over again.

Lindskoog has a special taste for coincidences, unexpected connections, odd synchronicities, and the like. In this book she indulges her taste to the full, with enjoyable results. For those who already have some direct knowledge of Lewis, MacDonald, and Dante, this book will fill in blanks that they did not know, maybe, were there.

I particularly enjoyed reading about the connections between MacDonald and Mark Twain. Perhaps Lindskoog's case that _Sir Gibbie_ influenced Twain's _Huckleberry Finn_ by provoking its author should be taken under consideration by Twain scholars. I think it is a strong one.

The book is, as its title indicates, in the way of a potpourri, rather than a unified case. There is no connection here to the Dark Tower controversy explored by Lindskoog in her book _Sleuthing C. S. Lewis_.

Curiosity, tenacity, and dedicated truth-seeking have produced this delightful book. There is fresh meat here to nourish doctoral candidates for decades. The work's clarity of expression, depth of argument, breadth of illustration, humour and thoughtful tutoring are worthy of a session with Oxford's Inklings. Lindskoog's Primavera discovery alone would have ensured her a welcome there.
Lindskoog writes about certain literature by three men--Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), George MacDonald (1824-1905), C. S. Lewis (1898-1963). Sharing a belief in a changeless universe ordered by a loving God, their highly rational works and complex symbolism have a timeless appeal. Each engages in a "dialect of desire," leading the reader into the universal appeal of the Christian's certain hope in the Message of the Suffering Servant. (But each
is greatly enjoyed by readers who don't care about or accept their religious beliefs.)
This book is a collection of 23 essays. Due diligence unearthed the influence of Beatrix Potter on Lewis, Lewis' anti-anti-Semitism in the GREAT DIVORCE and George MacDonald's stories with dual meanings and prophetic warnings. But most of the book is taken up with some truly startling, sparkling, and sober revelations which also enlighten and delight.
In the due-diligence type, Lindskoog traces meticulously and with great originality the surprising connections of these men with each other and with events, art and authors before and during their times. In Beatrix Potter, whose books he read as a child, Lewis found "at last, beauty", intense desire, and pleasure "in another dimension". In "Where is the Ancient City of Tashbaan?" geography and politics combine to provide the background Lewis used in THE HORSE AND HIS BOY of the CHRONICLES OF NARNIA. (Lindskoog learned from Brad Brenneman that THE CHRONICLES are for sale in Tashkent in Russian translation.) In "All or Nothing: A Newly Discovered Lewis Essay", she paraphrases the text of a Lewis article that Perry Bramlett discovered and generously shared with her.
Only Dante was active in politics, but politics was the bane of each. Dante was framed as an embezzler and banished from Florence; MacDonald lost his church when accused of preaching "unbiblical" universal redemption, and Lewis, scorned by Oxford for his popularization of sacred concerns, left for a warm welcome at Cambridge. Indeed, if Germany had invaded England, Lewis might have been killed by the Nazis for writing of "subhuman dwarfs in black shirts called the Swastici" in THE PILGRIM'S REGRESS (1933).
Lindskoog reveals surprising evidence that in THE GREAT DIVORCE (modeled on Dante's DIVINE COMEDY) Lewis' "Beatrice" (Sarah Smith) is a Jewish woman overflowing with heavenly love. As a bonus, Lindskoog and others had noted the resemblance of the Sarah Smith hymn to OLD TESTAMENT Psalms. Lindskoog credits Joshua Pong for pointing her to Psalm 91, Lewis' obvious source.
Using cognition and noting coincidence, Lindskoog takes us ever further up and further in toward the connection among the works of these three authors and others. Each points, whether in canto or correspondence, verse or prose, with relentless consistency toward the eternal fountain. It's this reliability which helps Lindskoog uncover Lewis' debt to Sadhu Sundar Singh,
for example, in THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH. "Links in a Golden Chain: C. S. Lewis, George Macdonald, and Sadhu Sundar Singh" ends whimsically with circumstantial evidence for a mystical passing of Sundar Singh's mantle on to MacDonald and from him to Lewis.
In "Roots and Fruits of the Secret Garden", Lindskoog shows us the historic links between MacDonald's CARASOYN (1871), Frances Hodgson Burnett's THE SECRET GARDEN (1911), Willa Cather's MY ANTONIA (1918) and D. H. Lawrence's LADY CHATTERLY'S LOVER (1928). Colin as shepherd boy, Colin as a motherless, crippled child, and then, thanks to Barbara Reynolds, Colin as a
crippled adult. Animals, gardens, invalids, rescues, moors, and wise women figure in one after the other. (Lawrence's book, however, is stunted by its narrowing, inward-looking worship of physical love with no link to spiritual reality.)
Equally fresh is "The Salty and the Sweet: Mark Twain, George MacDonald, and C. S. Lewis". The Twain and MacDonald families had traded hospitality, books, and a proposal to write the Great Scottish-American novel together. Twain's children, fond of MacDonald's AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND, asked their father to invent stories about its hero, Diamond. Although co-authorship was never realised, Lindskoog shows that Twain bought and read MacDonald's SIR GIBBIE while writing HUCKLEBERRY FINN. She
traces some remarkably specific contents of SIR GIBBIE that Twain included in HUCKLEBERRY FINN. She explains her convincing theory of why Twain did this.
Something "difficult to see" over the centuries is revealed for the first time by Lindskoog in her masterful analysis of Botticelli's Primavera as an "intentional Christian allegory," a tableau of Dante's sacred Garden of Eden at the peak of Mount Purgatory, with Beatrice at the center. Because it is a NeoPlatonic painting, this scene also appears as a tableau of figures from classic mythology.
Lindskoog also leads the casual reader or the scholar through 50 new insights of hers into specific phrases in Dante's many-faceted DIVINE COMEDY. Her 20 non-biblical discoveries involve, among other things, astronomy, animal husbandry, geology, geometry, sexual ethics, metaphysics, and church
politics. The other 30 are even more striking; all are Biblical allusions or illustrations of Dante's that have been overlooked or sadly misunderstood until now.
Dante, Lewis and MacDonald deal with the kind of death that leads to rebirth. Writing to point the way of faith, not deeds, through secular snares toward heavenly reward, each put into verse "things difficult to think." The timeless gift of all three is summarised in Lewis's praise for MacDonald's ability to trouble "the oldest certainties" and shock "us more fully awake than we are for most of our lives."
Closely reasoned, wittily presented, and based on solid evidence, Lindskoog's book rouses and enlightens her readers, cheerfully acknowledging the threads that others have contributed to her tapestry of discoveries. I hope the inevitable doctoral theses which will follow her leads exhibit the same integrity and credit the fertile source of their inspiration.

.

In _Sleuthing C.S. Lewis_, Kathryn Lindskoog carries on her crusade against Walter Hooper with all the balance and objectivity of a prosecuting attorney. Readers of Mrs. Lindskoog's earlier book _Light in the Shadowlands_ may find it useful to know that this latest book is not really a sequel but a modest revision. (Neither the Amazon website nor the Mercer University Press website mentions that fact.)

The reason for the relatively low rating I gave _Sleuthing_ is that I don't think the way Mrs. Lindskoog presents her case is commensurate with the seriousness of her allegations. Unlike a real prosecuting attorney, Mrs. Lindskoog is able, and more than willing, to present information whose prejudicial effect outweighs its probative value. I don't see the point of the rumormongering that takes place on pages 90, 177, and 178, or the catty remark about Hooper's conversion that is included on page 179, for instance. For some time Lindskoog has been making insinuations about Hooper's sexual orientation, and those appear, if anything, to be getting more numerous. (As a small example, compare footnote 6 on page 58 of _Sleuthing_ to footnote 6 on page 55 of _Light_.)

It would have been nice if Mrs. Lindskoog had said more about her methodology. She bridles at the charge that her theories are unfalsifiable, but the way that both similarities and dissimilarities between disputed and undisputed Lewis texts are used to bolster charges of forgery makes one wonder what sort of evidence she would accept as exculpatory. A.Q. Morton's identification of _The Dark Tower_ as a composite work is reported by Mrs. Lindskoog, but criticism of Morton's cusum technique by Michael Hilton, David Holmes, Pieter de Haan, and Erik Schils is not.

There are probably few living scholars who know more about C.S. Lewis than Mrs. Lindskoog does. The first book about Lewis I ever bought was the 1981 edition of Lindskoog's _C.S. Lewis: Mere Christian_; I enjoyed it greatly. Looking back at that book, I see that while Mrs. Lindskoog now writes "The most far-fetched fantasy of 1977 may have been the idea that Lewis was the author of _The Dark Tower_", in 1981 she wrote that "Lewis unfortunately got only halfway through [_The Dark Tower_] . . . No one knows why Lewis gave up on this innovative story".

Kathryn Lindskoog does not appear to take the role of judge or prosecuting attorney, but of investigative journalist as well as literary critic. She makes it clear in the preface material that this is an updated, expanded version of her earlier book "Light in the Shadowlands (also an excellent read). The interesting subtitle here is MORE Light in the Shadowlands. Anyone who dislikes wit and cheerful satire in serious scholarship should not read Lindskoog, because that's what she's noted for.

One should note that there is some extremely important new material in "Sleuthing", such as proof that 45 of the 75 poems that Lewis published in his lifetime were altered in 1964 by someone named Walter Hooper. So the versions that are familiar to Lewis' readers are inferior to what Lewis actually wrote. (One becomes increasingly familiar with Hooper in both books). Some of the poems are completely ruined. She also reveals shocking new facts about the secret ownership of the Lewis literary estate and the fact that the royalties on his estate go to (get this) a tax shelter in Lichtenstein, where they can't be investigated.

There are plenty of other new suprises in this highly entertaining new book, and I highly recommend it!

Lindskoog leaves a comet-trail of controversy wherever she goes in Lewis studies, but nobody who is interested in the writings of C. S. Lewis can afford to be ignorant of the case she makes in this book and in its earlier version, _Light in the Shadowlands_. What, after all, _are_ the writings of C. S. Lewis? There appears to be legitimate doubt about the authorship of some of the posthumously-released material.

_Sleuthing C. S. Lewis_ is an update and expansion of Lindskoog's earlier volume, and the text contains numerous additions. I thought it well worth the read, both to revisit the old material and to pick out the new. Also, this version has a much-needed index, unlike the earlier edition.

The text is marred by an unusually large number of typographical errors, no doubt the result of being handled by a small university press. However, this book is an important one. It is civil yet witty in tone and packed with fascinating stuff.

Buy, read, make up your own mind. (Or reserve judgement until more complete evidence is available, as the case may be.) These are important questions, and Lindskoog is the only writer on the market that treats them.

With a book like this, many readers cheat themselves by assuming that they already know what it's about, because they heard the outline of the story before, and therefore they have no need to really read it. A lot like the way some people treat the Bible, or at least large parts of the Bible. Anyway, I recently re-read this book to one of my daughters, and can report that upon close consideration, this book is really a retrospective Calvinistic explanation for how old Dr. Boekman finds a successor for his surgical practice, following Dr. Boekman's disappointment in his only son, who never liked medicine and who in fact found a reason to run away from Holland to resettle in England to pursue a business career. The rich descriptions of Dutch history and culture form the context for this drama.

Consequently, Dr. Boekman's whole outlook on life, exemplified by his perpetual frown, descends into depression as he humorlessly goes about his surgical practice, all the while increasing his fame which radiates from Amsterdam far out into the provinces, symbolized by the transportation and communication pathway of the frozen canals, over which all ages and classes of people happily skate through what used to be extremely cold winter months in Holland. These canals have not frozen solid on a regular basis for many decades.

These frozen canals in turn exemplify Dr. Boekman's frozen heart, which ultimately gets melted as a result of the importuning of Raff Brinker's son, young Hans, who cajoles old Dr. Boekman into taking a look at old Raff, who has been an invalid since suffering a closed head trauma while working out on the dikes during a fierce storm.

Dr. Boekman ends up surgically unblocking the "brainfreeze" suffered by Raff Brinker, who comes back to life "talking like an Amsterdam lawyer" which is a complete turn around from his invalid state where he appeared to be a distant, angry, barely controllable hulk crouching in his house by the fire, and casting a gloom of social obloquy which tainted not only his children, but his very cottage, in the eyes of most of the other respectable members of Dutch society, as they skated by on their local frozen canal.

By the end of the book, the connection achieved by Hans Brinker between his remote father and the remote surgeon seems to have spread, or networked, and young Hans is a rising surgeon practicing with Dr. Boekman, and happily married, while Dr. Boekman's biological son returns, or is redeemed back from England to practice a bustling business trade also in Amsterdam. The silver skates and the races on the canals are mainly a way for Hans to prove something to himself, that he can set his mind to what he wishes to achieve, and against all odds achieve it. The fact that all of this works to bring reconciliation and happiness back into people who are disconnected and frozen, rather than constituting a sappy, Dickensian series of unlikely coincidences, instead creates more of an echo of predestination than merely a "happy ending."

But then again, this is only one explanation of what we have here in this classic book.

I thought it was a wounderful story for the whole family to read.

Is this the greatest book ever? Maybe, maybe not. Shakespeare had some good ones. Either way, this merits the five stars I've given it. Delve into one of the greatest stories ever told, and learn all about Holland. By the time you're done, you'll want to go ice skating.

So strap on your wooden skates and squeek across the ice of Ole Holland. Who gets the silver skates? Who is the greatest hero? Is hidden fortune just under the peat moss?

Dat hangt er van af . . .

I ordered this book as part of a group of books on how to get children to read and while I found some of the suggested reading familiar I had not realized that this book was written for the Christian family and make reference to such groups as Focus On the Family. The book was pretty evenhanded over all, but if enough information had been available for me to have know the focus of the book ahead of time I would not have purchased a reading guide with this orientation.

The young reader that I grew with this book as my instruction and inspiration is consuming books. Mandatory library visits--imposed upon me, not by me--have become one of the small pleasures of my life. I watch with delight as she stacks the books to her chin and lunges for the checkout counter. Several weeks ago, the checkout person informed her that she had been monitoring who was checking out the most children's books from our Tampa, FL library. My daughter had won first place.