Sheldon Vanauken is one of my favorite authors.  Since there is not much information about him available on the Internet I decided some time ago to make what information I have available here.  I corresponded with Sheldon Vanauken, or Van as he was known to friends, during the last year of his life.

Sheldon Vanauken (1914-1996) was a professor of history and English literature at Lynchburg College in Lynchburg, Virginia.  He is best known for his autobiographical book A Severe Mercy (1977), which recounts his and his wife Davy's friendship with C. S. Lewis, their conversion to Christianity and their subsequent dealing with the "severe mercy" of Davy's death. Vanauken was also the author of a booklet detailing his conversion to Christianity, Encounter with Light (1960),  a novel, Gateway to Heaven (1980), a sequel to A Severe Mercy entitled Under the Mercy (1985), The Glittering Illusion: English Sympathy for the Southern Confederacy (1985), Mercies: Collected Poems (1988) and The Little Lost Marion and Other Mercies (1996).

To read Vanauken's biography on Wikipedia click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheldon_Vanauken