Have you ever wanted to meet the man behind the magical land of Narnia?  Now you can meet C. S. Lewis, the Oxford tutor and Cambridge professor who wrote the seven books: The Chronicles of Narnia.  Learn what made the creator of the most beloved fairy tales of the 20^th century the man who he was.  Along the way you will visit all the important places of Lewis's life: from Belfast, Northern Ireland to the steps of the Parthenon in Greece and you will also meet some of Lewis's best friends, like J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.  Your tour guide for this fabulous journey is Will Vaus, author of Mere Theology: A Guide to the Thought of C. S. Lewis, founder of three C. S. Lewis Societies, leader of a C. S. Lewis tour to England, and one of the few people in the world who actually lived in The Narnia Cottage in Ireland.  Will stepped through the wardrobe door for the first time when he was 9 years old, and now that he has three sons of his own he knows how much every young person who reads the Narnia books or has seen the blockbuster Disney/Walden Media Narnia movies wants to know more about the author of these delightful stories, C. S. Lewis.  So come along for the ride and you may even get to meet the great lion Aslan himself.

The Professor of Narnia book tour took place in the fall of 2008.  You can see some of the places Will visited below.  Even though the official book tour has concluded, if you have a group that would like to host a lecture and book signing, Will would be happy to consider it.  E-mail him today!  will@willvaus.com

Stonewall Jackson Elementary School

2045 Euclid Avenue, Bristol, VA 24201

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Contact: Heather Lawson hvlawson@bristolvaschools.org 276-821-5740

C. S. Lewis Society of Chattanooga

Rock Point Books, 401 Broad St., Chattanooga, TN, 37402

October 17, 2008

7:00 p.m.

Contact: Rev. David Beckmann dnbeckmann@yahoo.com

4908 Tennessee Ave., Chattanooga, TN 37409

Fuller Theological Seminary Southwest

4646 E. Van Buren St. Ste 185 Phoenix, AZ 85225

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

11:00 AM

Contact: Bruce R. Johnson

3421 N. Hayden Rd., Scottsdale, Arizona 85251

480.946.4207

Arizona C.S. Lewis Society

Scottsdale First Assembly Dream Center

28700 N. Pima Road, Scottsdale, AZ 85266

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

7:00 PM

Contact: Bruce R. Johnson bruce@scottsdalechurch.com

3421 N. Hayden Rd., Scottsdale, Arizona 85251

480.946.4207

Azusa Pacific University

901 E. Alosta Ave., PO Box 7000, Azusa, CA 91702-7000

Friday, October 24, 2008

Contact: David Esselstrom DEsselstrom@apu.edu or Dr. Craig Boyd cboyd@apu.edu

626-969-3434

Mystery & Imagination Bookshop
238 N. Brand Blvd Glendale, CA 91203
Saturday, October 25, 2008

7 pm

Christine   signings@mindspring.com

C. S. Lewis Society of Frederick, Maryland

C. Burr Artz Public Library

110 E Patrick St, Frederick, MD  21701

Monday, October 27, 2008

7 - 8:30pm

Contact: Corey J. Kinna

8 Blackford Circle, Thurmont, MD 21788

FrederickLewisSociety@yahoo.com

301.305.0308

Barnes & Noble

Manassas, Virginia

Saturday, November 1, 2008

2 pm

Wheaton College

501 College Avenue, Wheaton, Illinois 60187-5593

Monday, November 3, 2008, 3 pm

Contact: Wayne Martindale waynemartindale@gmail.com

C. S. Lewis Society

Taylor University

Upland, Indiana

Thursday, November 6, 2008

7 pm

Contact: Laura Constantine lrconstantine@taylor.edu

Central Indiana C. S. Lewis Society

Second Presbyterian Church

7700 North Meridian Street, Indianapolis, Indiana  46260

http://www.secondchurch.org

Friday, November 7, 2008

7:00 pm

Contact: Connie Hintz ci_cslewis@yahoo.com (317) 351-0419

or Dan Hamilton rdhtiger@sbcglobal.net (317) 357-6739

Barnes & Noble

Indianapolis, IN

Saturday, November 8, 2008

11 am-1 pm

Highland County Public Library

Monterey, VA

Monday, November 10, 2008

7 pm

Contact: Tomi Herold mail@highlandlibrary.com

31 North Water Street, Monterey VA 24465

New Covenant Christian School

Lynchburg, VA

Friday, November 14, 2008

Contact: Bart Martin bmartin@newcovenantschools.org

Inklings Bookshop

Lynchburg, VA

Saturday, November 15, 2008

3 pm

Contact: Ed Hopkins inklings@ntelos.net

1206-1208 Main Street, Lynchburg VA 24504

Barnes & Noble

Harrisonburg, VA

Friday, November 21, 2008

7 pm

Contact: JoMarie DeGioia crm2131@bn.com

289 Burgess Road, Harrisonburg, VA 22801

Barnes & Noble

Frederick, Maryland

Saturday, November 22, 2008

3-5 pm

New York C. S. Lewis Society

Parish House of The Church of the Ascension

Friday, January 9, 2009

7:30 pm

Contact : Robert Trexler rhtrexler@gmail.com or Clara Sarrocco csarrocco@aol.com

12 West 11^th Street, New York, NY

This is the perfect biography of C.S.Lewis for children. I like it so much that I'm going to go out on a limb and say something daring. If Lewis were alive I wonder what would happen if Will Vaus asked his opinion of it? First of all, Lewis would scold Will for not having chosen a more worthy subject. Secondly, after the scolding, I think Lewis would thank the author for giving him his rightful place in history - not as a writer of the early 21^st Century, but an Irishman living in England during the first part of the 20^th Century.

      That is a very important difference. One of the key principles of Lewis's years of teaching literary history was that it is essential that an author be placed in the actual historical context in which he lived. If you treat  an author who lived a long time ago as if he were almost exactly like yourself - as if writing with a dip pen was much the same as using a computer and an Oxford College 550 years old almost the same as an American university 20 years old -  the subject of your biography will be mainly imaginary.

      And if the subject of the biography is imaginary, you learn nothing from the book. No. The right way, the honest way, is the one Lewis followed in his literary studies.

      First of all, he believed that if a writer smudges over the differences between various periods he is causing us to be ‘disinherited' of what we need, and want, to know. Secondly, Lewis believed that to enjoy ‘full humanity' we ought, so far as possible, to ‘become an Achaean chief while reading Homer, a medieval knight while reading Malory, and an Eighteenth-Century Londoner while reading Johnson. Only thus will you be able to judge the work "in the same spirit that its author writ" and to avoid chimerical criticism.'[1]

     I'm not sure I've read a biography of Lewis in which this ideal has been realised as well as it is here. Dare I confess it? When I first picked it up I was afraid that if Will Vaus mentioned Lewis's method of writing he would bewail the fact that Lewis did not have computers, E-mail, laser printers and the rest.  I need not have feared. This author has more than done his ‘homework' and there is a fine passage on page 12 explaining how Lewis wrote. Indeed, on almost every page there are descriptions of how things appeared to Lewis. I give Will Vaus as many stars as you like because the boys and girls who read this biography will not only know how Lewis spent his time, but will know in their bones what it felt like to be the man whose dreams of lions led to the creation of Narnia.

 Walter Hooper

 Literary Advisor to the C. S. Lewis Estate