Bruce Cordell leaves Wizards

So, Bruce Cordell has just announced that he's leaving Wizards to the Coast. It's been an amazing eighteen year run, during which time he's earned a well-deserved reputation as one of the finest designers (gamespeak for "writer") in the rpg industry. I'm proud to have edited his first project for TSR back in Lake Geneva days: THE GATES OF FIRESTORM PEAK, a supremely creepy dungeon with a strong sidedose of weird. That same mix came together for his next project, RETURN TO THE TOMB OF HORRORS; it's still a regret of mine that, having been the original editor on that project, I wasn't able to finish it because of falling prey to the Christmas purge of '96.* We worked together a little after my coming on board at Wizards of the Coast; when I was running behind on THE REVERSE DUNGEON and had to down tools in order to begin work editing the Third Edition core rulebooks (i.e., co-editing the 3e PLAYER'S HANDBOOK and DUNGEON MASTER'S GUIDE), he stepped in and wrote the third scenario to fill out the adventure. And I'm still glad to have had the luck to play with him in Monte Cook's Cthulhu campaign back in Lake Geneva, when Monte ran a group of us (Sue, Bruce, Keith, Ray, myself) through Pagan P.'s WALKER IN THE WASTE

So, thanks for all the great games so far, Bruce, and best of luck in your new ventures.

--John R.


*luckily it fell into the capable hands of Steve Winter and Skip Williams, who saw it through to publication after The Great Interregnum ended.

UPDATE:
I forgot to include the link to Bruce's own announcement of the momentous event:


http://brucecordell.blogspot.com/2013/07/farewell-wizards-and-thank-you.html

The Lewis List (By)

So, having now managed to get my Lewis books (by and about) together, not just on the same floor but in the same room, indeed the same bookcase, this seemed like a good time to take stock and see what I had and what I might be missing. I've broken the resulting list in two parts, by (i.e., works written by CSL himself) and about (books about Lewis and about his works). The first such list shd be reasonably complete, though with all the posthumous re-packaging of Lewis's religious essays I might have missed one or two there. Comments welcome.

Also, note that a few items that cd have been included on this list aren't because I have them shelved elsewhere: ESSAYS PRESENTED TO CHARLES WILLIAMS (ed. CSL, 1947) on the Tolkien shelf and ARTHURIAN TORSO (ed. CSL 1948) w. the Ch. Wms books. And of course now that I've identified the gaps I'll work to fill them in bit by bit; just yesterday I ordered a (print-on-demand, alas) copy of SPIRITS IN BONDAGE, which'll be nice to have. It shd also nudge me to reading some of the CSL books I've never gotten around to, like THE PILGRIM'S REGRESS (which I'm currently trying to read, without so far much success). Note that I've read some of the books I don't have (e.g., A GRIEF OBSERVED, LETTERS TO AN AMERICAN LADY), and that I've never read some of the books I have (e.g. the OHEL volume or the diaries).


Here's the first of those lists.

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Lewis List (by)

scholarship

"What Chaucer Really Did to Il Filostrato" [1934] in  Chaucer Criticism, Vol. II: Troilus and Criseyde and The Minor Poems, ed. Richard J. Schoeck [1961]

The Allegory of Love [1936]

            lack: Rehabilitations and other essays [1939]

            lack: The Personal Heresy w. E. M. W. Tillyard [1939]

A Preface to Paradise Lost [1942] hc

English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, excluding drama [1954]

            (sans 'Chronological Table' and Bibli.)

Studies in Words [(1960); rev. ed. 1967]; two copies

An Experiment in Criticism [1961]

            lack: They Asked for a Paper: Papers and Addresses [1962]

The Discarded Image [1964]

Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories, ed. Walter Hooper [1966]

Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature, ed. Walter Hooper [1966]

            lack: Spenser's Images of Life, completed by Alastair Fowler [1967]

            lack: Selected Literary Essays, ed. Walter Hooper [1969]

On Stories and other essays on literature, ed. Walter Hooper [1982]

            lack: Essay Collection and other short pieces, ed. Lesley Walmsley [2000]

C. S. Lewis's Lost Aeneid: Arms and the Exile, ed. A. T. Reyes [2011]

fiction

Boxon (w. Warnie Lewis?), ed. Walter Hooper, 1985

The Pilgrim's Regress [1933]. [two copies, one hc]

The Ransom Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and The Tortured Planet ("Specially abridged by the Author"). Avon paperbacks

Out of the Silent Planet [1938] hc

Perelandra [1943] hc

That Hideous Strength [1945]

The Great Divorce [1945]

The Chronicles of Narnia (pb boxed set):

            The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe [1950]

            Prince Caspian [1951]

            The Voyage of the 'Dawn Treader' [1952]

            The Silver Chair [1953]

            The Horse and His Boy [1954]

            The Magician's Nephew [1955]

            The Last Battle [1956]

Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold [1956]

The Dark Tower and other stories, ed. Walter Hooper [1977]

Light: C. S. Lewis's First and Final Short Story, ed. Charlie W. Starr [2012]

poetry

            lack: Spirits in Bondage (as 'Clive Hamilton') [1919]

Poems, ed. Walter Hooper [1964]

Narrative Poems, ed. Walter Hooper [1969]. includes Dymer [1926]

apologetics

The Problem of Pain [1940]

The Screwtape Letters [1942]

Broadcast Talks (Right and Wrong: A Clue to the Meaning of the Universe + What Christians Believe) [1942] hc

Christian Behaviour [1943] hc

Beyond Personality: The Christian Idea of God [1944] hc

            collected as Mere Christianity [1952]

The Abolition of Man [1943]

Miracles [1947]

            lack: Transposition and other addresses [1949]

            (a.k.a. The Weight of Glory and other addresses)

Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life [1956]

Reflections on the Psalms [1958]

The Four Loves [1960]

The World's Last Night and other essays [1960]

            lack: A Grief Observed, as 'N. W. Clerk' [1961]

            lack: They Asked for a Paper: Papers and Addresses [1962]

Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer [1964]

God in the Dock: essays on theology and ethics, ed. Walter Hooper [1970]

diaries

All My Road Before Me: The Diary of C. S. Lewis 1922–1927, ed. Walter Hooper [1991]

letters

Letters of C. S. Lewis, ed., w. a memoir, by W. H. Lewis [1966]

            lack: Letters to an American Lady, ed. Clyde S. Kilby [1967]

They Stand Together: The Letters of C. S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves, ed. Walter Hooper [1979]

C. S. Lewis: Letters to Children, ed. Lyle W. Dorsett & Marjorie Lamp Mead [1985]

Letters: C. S. Lewis • Don Giovanni Calabria: A Study in Friendship , tr. & ed. Martin Moynihan [1988]

Letters of C. S. Lewis , rev. and enlarged edition, ed. Walter Hooper [1988]

The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, ed. Walter Hooper:

            Vol. I: Family Letters  1905–1931 [2000]

            Vol. II: Books, Broadcasts, and the War  1931–1949 [2004]

            Vol. III: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy  1950–1963 [2007]

And the Winner Is . . .

Verlyn Flieger!

Or, to be more accurate, Verlyn Flieger's latest book, GREEN SUNS AND FAERIE, just won the Mythopoeic Award last night as the year's best work in Inklings Scholarship.

Competition was stiff: Corey Olsen's new book on THE HOBBIT, Jason Fisher's collection on Tolkien's sources, Rbt Boenig's book on CSL as medievalist, and Jn Bremer's rather eccentric book on CSL's not being a war poet.

Congratulations to all the finalists, and especially to Verlyn.

--John R.

current audiobook: McGrath's CSL biography (still; getting near the end)

A Possible Riddle-Source ("Time")

So, most of the riddles that make up Bilbo and Gollum's famous exchange have long since had their source(s) plausibly identified. But one exception to this general rule has been the "Time" riddle. Various possible sources have been suggested, but none quite seemed to give that ah-ha! feel of a compelling match. I did come across another possibility recently (while reading the discussion of THE ROMANCE OF THE ROSE in Boenig's book on C. S. L.) that I thought I'd add to the mix. In the description of an allegorical depiction of Old Age, the author (Guillaume de Lorris), writes

Time, who goes away night and day, without rest

and without interruption, who parts from us and

steals away so quickly, seems to us to be always

stopped at one place, but he never stops there at

all. He never ceases passing away, so that no man,

even if you ask learned clerks, can tell you what

time it is that is present, for before he had thought,

three moments would already have passed. Time, 

who cannot stay, but always goes without return-

ing, like water which is always descending, never

returning a drop backward; Time, before whom 

nothing endures, not iron nor anything however

hard, for Time destroys and devours everything;

Time, who changes everything, who makes all grow

and nourishes all, who uses all and causes it to rot;

Time, who made our fathers old, who ages kings

and emperors and will age us all, unless Death

cuts us off; Time, who has it in his power to age 

all mankind . . . 

--THE ROMANCE OF THE ROSE, by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, tr. Charles Dahlerg (1983), p. 35-36, about lines 360 to 385?

Here's how Chaucer rendered the passage in his own (Middle English) translation:

The Tyme, that passeth nyght and day,

And restelees travayleth ay,

And steleth from us prively,

That to us seemeth sykerly

That it in one point dwelleth ever,

And certes, it ne resteth never,

But goth so faste, and passeth ay,

That ther nys man that thynke may

What tyme that now present is --

Asketh at these clerkes this;

For er men thynke it redily

Thre tymes ben ypassed by.

The Tyme, that may not sojourne,

But goth and may never retourne,

As water that downe renneth ay,

But never droppe retourne may.

There may nothyng as Tyme endure,

Metal nor erthely creature,

For al thing it fret and shal.

The Tyme, eke, that chaungeth al,

And al doth waxe and fostred be,

And al thyng distroyeth he.

The Tyme that eldeth our auncestours

And eldeth kynges and emperours,

And that us al shal overcomen

Er that Dethe us shal have nomen.

The Tyme that hath al in welde

To elden folk had maad hir elde . . . 

ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE, lines 369-396

Fisher's COMPLETE POETRY AND PROSE OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER, second edition, p. 587

Could this be a contributing source for Tolkien's Time riddle? I think it v. likely, given the bits about "iron" and "king" and "devours". And we have a strong connection between Tolkien and Chaucer, in that JRRT spent several years putting together a Chaucer anthology, THE CLARENDON CHAUCER, which wd have made a nice companion volume to the Tolkien/Gordon SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT and Sisam FOURTEENTH CENTURY VERSE AND PROSE (to wh. Tolkien contributed).* But the passage lacks too many elements (stone, town, mountain), I think, to have been the main or only source.

So: not the crown jewel we've been looking for, but an addition, I think, to the pool of time-riddles and time-poems and time-characterizations.

--John R.
just finished: Joseph Pearce's book on THE HOBBIT
current reading: Edward Rice's biography of Captain Richard Burton





*Lewis's work on THE ROMANCE OF THE ROSE, while significant, came too late to have influenced Tolkien

Lembas Tea Latte

So, the following map may not be your cup of tea (so to speak) but I thought it was a hoot. Thanks to Janice for the link:

http://www.savagechickens.com/2012/09/middle-earth.html

--John R.

(posting from Starbucks in Enumclaw)

McGrath (interrum report)

So, I'm now a third of the way through the audiobook of McGrath's new biography of C. S. Lewis, and I must say I'm impressed. Whether it establishes itself as the standard biography (displacing the current trifecta of Green and Hooper, Sayer, and Wilson*) I don't know, but I cd see that happening. It'll certainly be a strong contender for book of the year next time nominations for the Mythopoeic Award come round.

This biography is primarily based on the massive 8,000 page three-volume COLLECTED LETTERS, supplemented as needed by other sources, and also lays stress on Lewis's northern-Ireland background, which the author thinks established the default landscapes in most of Lewis's work. No major revelations or recasting of the familiar narrative so far, but a number of small points tell in McGrath's favor.

First off, he doesn't have a cow over the idea that Lewis actually sometimes did chores at the Kilns. Warnie Lewis considered it monstrous that he, a retired officer, sometimes had to walk the dog, and his brother on occasion even had to take out the trash. McGrath doesn't think that makes Mrs. Moore a monster or Lewis a battered spouse: he thinks it's perfectly normal. Score one for McGrath.

Second, he suggests that Lewis and Paddy Moore might actually have been quite close (there's some evidence that Lewis tried to get assigned to the same military unit as Paddy), an idea some dismiss without even considering seriously.

Third, he suggests that Lewis was the love of Arthur Greeves' life. Greeves confessed his homosexuality to Lewis, who made it clear he did not reciprocate Greeves' feelings; the two agreed to remain friends. That's interesting, and so far as I know, new.

Fourth, Mrs Moore. McGrath's mind doesn't boggle at the idea of CSL falling in love with an older woman. This sets him ahead of those who can't understand a young man falling in love with a much older woman (Janie M.) but have no problem believing that same man cd later fall in love with a much younger woman (Joy G.). Also, McGrath understands that it's not fair to collapse descriptions of Janie M. from a quarter-century later as a sick old women suffering from Alzheimer's with the way she was when Lewis fell in love with her -- an elementary point that's eluded most.

Fifth, he makes it clear that Lewis treated his father badly during the last decade of the latter's life, though McGrath is inclined to give him a break on this (far more than I personally would; I agree w. CSL himself that it's the most shameful episode in his life).

Having gotten to the point in the narrative where CSL has just met Tolkien and the Lewis-Moore family has just bought the Kilns, I'll be v. interested to see if McGrath gets another important point right. The odd idea has grown up that CSL had an affair with Mrs. Moore that lasted a decade or so, but broke it off when he converted to Xianity. There's no evidence for this sudden celibacy at all, other than an assumption that Xian Lewis of the 1930s and 40s wd behave differently than the highly moral but non-Xian Lewis of the 1920s;** instead it seems clear she remained his common-law wife (and he her common-law husband) till her death.

We'll see if he continues as well as he's begun.

--John R.
current reading: BILBO'S JOURNEY by Joseph Pearce [2012]
also: CAPTAIN SIR RICHARD FRANCIS BURTON (biography) by Edward Rice [1990]
current audiobook: C. S. LEWIS: ECCENTRIC GENUIS, RELUCTANT PROPHET by McGrath [2012]


*Wilson is on record saying he believes McGrath's to be a better biography than his own -- a rare level of endorsement among biographers, I shd think.

**dubious, given CSL's later attempts to convince the Bishop of Oxford that the Anglican ban on marrying a divorcee shdn't apply to him.

Adjusting the Shelves

So, the past few days I've been moving a lot of book around. The Tolkiens (by and about) are up here in my office, of course, but there's now a backlog of recent books about THE HOBBIT that I need to find places for on my shelves. And there are some Tolkien-related books that reside downstairs in the box room (quizbooks, parodies, and other peripheral material of the sort), along with non-Inklings books by Carpenter and a few by Pearce, works by minor Inklings (e.g. Coghill and Cecil), and associated figures (e.g., the Unwins).

The problem is that the Lewis books are divided between a bookcase in the dining room (by, some about) and those same shelves in the box room (more about), since the top shelf of that bookcase is devoted to Barfield, leaving no room for all the Lewises (by and about) to be shelved together. The Ch. Wms books were similarly divided, and most of Warnie was in the box room as well.  I tried moving the Barfield to my grandfather's old walnut bookcase (also in the dining room), thus dispossessing all the VIIs and currently-checked-out library books. That fixed the Lewis problem, but not v. satisfactorily.

That's when Janice stepped in, seeing the books stacked here and there, and suggested converting one of the two large bookcases up in her office to OB, CSL, et al. So yesterday all the books on those shelves came off (religion, biography, archeology and paleontology, native american (Mayan, Caddo, et al), antarctic disasters, conspiracies and crank theories, et al.), resulting in a sea of books all around the room (soon to be taken off to new homes in the dining room and box room, minus a few culls). And today the new residents moved in. Top shelf is now Barfield. Second and third shelves are CSL (by) followed by CSL (about). Fourth and final shelf is Wms and Warnie.

One result of this sort-out is the discovery of some duplicates and the decision that a few books can be gotten rid of for one reason for another. Accordingly, the following books all up for grabs to good homes:

1. PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS by CSL, ed. Patricia S. Klein. I've had this book for eight years, having picked it up on an impulse. Since I haven't read it in all that time, I'm not likely to anytime in the foreseeable future either. Esp. given that I prefer reading Lewis's books the way he wrote them than a selection of excerpts, as here.

2. C. S. LEWIS: THE AUTHENTIC VOICE by Wm Griffin. I had to order this one to track down a quote in my "Missing Women" piece. Turns out it's just a re-issue of his CSL: A DRAMATIC LIFE under a different title. Since the latter is readily available, shd I decide I want to read it, this one can go.

3. C. S. LEWIS AND NARNIA FOR DUMMIES by Richard Wagner. This one must have seemed a good idea at the time. I not only bought it but read it and marked it up. The best parts are probably the cartoons by Tennant, who clearly knows nothing about CSL, making for an amusing disjunction.

4. A POCKET COMPANION TO NARNIA by Paul F. Ford. This looks like a wonderful little book for anyone doing work on Narnia;  a sort of CSL edition of Rbt Foster's ever-useful GUIDE TO MIDDLE-EARTH. Since I've never made any use of it in the eight years I've had it, and hope never to have to work on Narnia, this really shd go to someone who'll make better use of it.

5. A SEVERE MERCY by Sheldon Vanauken. I don't know why I have two copies of a book I've never taken the time to actually read, but one of them can surely go

6. THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS by C. S. Lewis. The first Lewis book I ever read, and still one of my favorites. However, we can probably get by if we trim our three copies down to just two (preliminary to deciding which of those two ultimately stays and which goes).

7. A PREFACE TO PARADISE LOST by C. S. L. Again, this is a duplicate: I'm keeping the hardcover and letting the (trade) paperback go.

There would have been an eighth book, Taum Santoski's copy of THE C. S. LEWIS HOAX by Kathryn Lindskoog, but glancing through it I found that I'd forgotten Taum had annotated it in some places, so I'll be hanging on to this one for a while.

One thing such a sort-out does is highlight a few things that I really shd get to fill some gaps: Lewis's book on Spenser, more of his literary essays (alas that REHABILITATIONS and the ESSAY COLLECTION are alike outside my budget), his first book SPIRITS IN BONDAGE (probably in one of the print-on-demand reprints, now that I know they exist), the volume of Joy Gresham letters, and (when opportunity offers) the recent Boenig book on CSL AND THE MIDDLE AGES. Similarly, I have all but two of Warnie's books, and really shd get the ones I'm missing, having enjoyed those I read of his quite a lot.

And now, back to more sorting and re-arranging; first of the displaced books, and then of the Tolkien shelves.

--John R.
current reading: THE FALL OF ARTHUR, Walter Raleigh on Blake.
current audiobook: McGrath's biography of CSL