Editing C. S. Lewis (section)

===Scholar===
[[File:Magdalen College Oxford 20040613.jpg|thumb|Magdalen College, Oxford]]
[[File:MagdaleneCollegeCam.jpg|thumb|Magdalene College, Cambridge]]

Lewis began his academic career as an undergraduate student at [[Oxford University]], where he won a triple first, the highest honours in three areas of study.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Question of God: C. S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life |last=Nicholi |first=Armand |publisher=Free Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0743247856 |page=4}}</ref> He was then elected a Fellow of [[Magdalen College, Oxford]], where he worked for nearly thirty years, from 1925 to 1954.<ref name="WWW">{{Cite book |title=Who Was Who |date=1 December 2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |chapter=Lewis, Clive Staples |doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U48011 |isbn=978-0-19-954089-1 |chapter-url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540891.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-48011 |access-date=8 April 2018 |archive-date=9 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180409043654/http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540891.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-48011 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1954, he was awarded the newly founded [[Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English (Cambridge)|chair of Mediaeval and Renaissance Literature]] at [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]], and was elected a fellow of [[Magdalene College, Cambridge|Magdalene College]].<ref name="WWW" /> Concerning his appointed academic field, he argued that there was no such thing as an [[English Renaissance]].<ref name="ohel" /><ref>{{Cite book |title=Selected Literary Essays |last=Lewis |first=C. S. |date=1969 |editor-last=Hooper |editor-first=Walter |page=[https://archive.org/details/selectedliterary0000lewi/page/2 2] |chapter=De Descriptione Temporum |orig-year=1955 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/selectedliterary0000lewi |chapter-url-access=registration}}</ref> Much of his scholarly work concentrated on the [[Late Middle Ages|later Middle Ages]], especially its use of allegory. His ''[[The Allegory of Love]]'' (1936) helped reinvigorate the serious study of late medieval narratives such as the ''[[Roman de la Rose]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Allegory of Love |last=Lewis |first=C. S. |orig-year=1936 |year=1977 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, UK}}</ref>

[[File:Eagle and Child.jpg|thumb|upright|right|[[The Eagle and Child]] pub in Oxford where the Inklings met on Tuesday mornings in 1939]]

Lewis was commissioned to write the volume ''English Literature in the Sixteenth Century (Excluding Drama)'' for the Oxford History of English Literature.<ref name="ohel">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/englishliteratur00lewi |title=English Literature in the Sixteenth Century: excluding drama |last=Lewis |first=C. S. |year=1954 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=London |url-access=registration}}</ref> His book ''A Preface to Paradise Lost''<ref>{{cite book |title=A Preface to "Paradise Lost": Being the Ballard Matthews Lectures, Delivered at University College, North Wales, 1941 |last=Lewis |first=C. S. |orig-year=1942 |year=1961 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=London |ref=none}}</ref> is still cited as a criticism of that work. His last [[academia|academic work]], ''[[The Discarded Image]]: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature'' (1964), is a summary of the medieval world view, a reference to the "discarded image" of the cosmos.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature |last=Lewis |first=C. S. |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1994 |location=Cambridge, England |orig-year=1964}}</ref>

Lewis was a prolific writer, and his circle of literary friends became an informal discussion society known as the "[[Inklings]]", including [[J. R. R. Tolkien]], [[Nevill Coghill]], [[Lord David Cecil]], [[Charles Williams (British writer)|Charles Williams]], [[Owen Barfield]], and his brother [[Warren Lewis]]. Glyer points to December 1929 as the Inklings' beginning date.{{sfn|Glyer|2007|p=}} Lewis's friendship with Coghill and Tolkien grew during their time as members of the Kolbítar, an Old Norse reading group that Tolkien founded and which ended around the time of the inception of the Inklings.{{sfn|Lazo|2004|pp=191–226}} At Oxford, he was the tutor of poet [[John Betjeman]], critic [[Kenneth Tynan]], mystic [[Bede Griffiths]], novelist [[Roger Lancelyn Green]] and Sufi scholar [[Martin Lings]], among many other undergraduates. The religious and conservative Betjeman detested Lewis, whereas the [[anti-establishment]] Tynan retained a lifelong admiration for him.{{sfn|Tonkin|2005}}{{Rp | needed = yes|date=March 2012}}

Of Tolkien, Lewis writes in ''[[Surprised by Joy]]'':

{{blockquote |When I began teaching for the English Faculty, I made two other friends, both Christians (these queer people seemed now to pop up on every side) who were later to give me much help in getting over the last stile. They were HVV Dyson&nbsp;... and JRR Tolkien. Friendship with the latter marked the breakdown of two old prejudices. At my first coming into the world I had been (implicitly) warned never to trust a [[Papist]], and at my first coming into the English Faculty (explicitly) never to trust a [[philology|philologist]]. Tolkien was both.{{sfn|Lewis|1966b|p=216}}}}