Just came across this wonderful little anecdote about Mr. and Mrs. C.S. Lewis from an interview by Washington Times reporter Jen Waters with Douglas Gresham. Gresham -- the executive producer of the new Narnia movie -- is one of the two sons of Joy Davidman Gresham Lewis and, thus, one of the adopted sons of Jack Lewis.
It seems that Lewis had one strong woman on his hands.
A favorite memory of Mr. Gresham's happened one day while walking behind his mother and stepfather at the Kilns, Lewis' home. His mother was apt to carry a shotgun and hunt pigeons in the trees.
While enjoying the outdoors, a young man jumped from the bushes carrying a bow and quiver of arrows. When Lewis asked him to leave the property, the man pointed the arrows at him and Mr. Gresham's mother.
"Immediately, Jack displayed his chivalry, his courage and his sense of duty by stepping in front of my mother to shield her from the arrow," Mr. Gresham says. "He stood there for a few seconds, until he heard my mother ... behind him saying, 'Jack get out of my line of fire.' "
I did a little interview with Gresham myself, several weeks ago, about his new biography of Lewis for children.
However, anyone seeking a major biography of Lewis by someone else who knew him inside out should turn to "Jack: C.S. Lewis and His Times" by the apologist's former student and walking companion George Sayer. Click here for a 1998 interview with Sayer, who deals with all of the tough subjects -- yes, the sexy ones too -- in Lewis' life, yet does so by interviewing others who knew him and quoting relevant documents.
It's an old-fashioned kind of biography, in other words, with no pop psychology allowed. Journalists covering the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe should look it up as a reference book.