CHRISTIAN REFLECTIONS

First edition. Inscribed association copy. Publisher's original dark blue cloth with white titles to the spine, in dustwrapper. A fine copy, the finding square and firm, the cloth bright and fresh. The contents are clean throughout. Complete with the lightly rubbed original dustwrapper that is toned at the edges and otherwise without loss or tears.

Inscribed by the editor in blue ink on the title page "For Maureen and Leonard / With love from Walter / 14.iv.1967 / Oxford". The recipients of this presentation are Maureen and Leonard Blake. Maureen (later Lady Dunbar of Hempriggs) was one of the most significant figures in C. S. Lewis' life, a friend and surrogate sister with whom he lived for over 20 years. Maureen Moore and Leonard Blake were married (with Lewis' encouragement) in 1940. Both teachers, Leonard was for more than two decades, the Director of Music at Malvern College (Lewis was educated at Malvern, and it is widely recognised that his time there, in particular the gas lamps and landscape, helped inspire the Chronicles of Narnia). Leonard and Maureen had two children, Lewis was godfather to their son Richard. They maintained a close friendship for the rest of Lewis' life. Leonard passed away in 1989 and Maureen in 1997, the final passages of 'The Last Battle' were read at her funeral. A posthumous collection of 14 essays and papers, all of which were composed during the last few decades of the author's life. Some were written specifically for periodicals, others are published here for the first time. The collection is selected and edited by Lewis scholar, biographer and literary executor Walter Hooper.