The Magic Never Ends: The Life and Work of C.S. Lewis

A man more beloved overseas, specifically America, than in his homeland of Ireland and the U.K., Lewis was a scholar, philosopher, author, children's fantasist, print and broadcast apologist, teacher, critic, and poet. Interest in Lewis has never wavered, if anything, it has only increased. There are numerous C.S. Lewis societies; many of his works have been adapted to the stage and screen, most recently the Academy Award nominated film Shadowlands; books and articles about him abound; academic careers have been launched and nurtured on the analysis and study of his life and works.

Yet his life was a sea of changing contradictions. An avowed atheist, Lewis' own conversion to Christianity coincided with the rise of the evangelical movement in America, a movement for which he was adopted as a spokesman. Lewis, however, was not an evangelical. He was not even familiar with the word. He would marry late in life, and he would marry a Bronx-bred Jewish Communist turned Christian poet. An extremely complex man, Lewis became the "Theologian for Everyman". From children to adults - millions have read his more than forty books.

In addition to his books, Lewis authored more than 200 stories and essays and almost 80 poems. His works cover a wide spectrum of topics including contemporary issues and the enduring questions of human meaning. His essays ranged from the cultural, philosophical, and religious to the historical, theoretical and critical. Yet, his second best-known work, The Screwtape Letters (1942), which earned him a place on Time's cover in 1947 (and sold in the millions), may be unfamiliar to the admirers of his Narnia Chronicles. Readers of his science fiction trilogy may be unaware of his scholarly works. Those who are familiar with Mere Christianity may not have read his Problem of Pain, and others are only familiar with his lyrical poetry and narrative poems.

Though a son of Ireland, tutored in the public schools of England, grown to adulthood at Oxford, and spending his last years at Cambridge, it is in America that Lewis became an icon. To this day there is far greater interest in Lewis in North America than in Europe. The largest collection of Lewis documents can be found at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. But more revealing is the fact that Lewis' life has never been documented before for American television.

In addition to its television distribution, this program will be marketed to individuals via cassette and distributed to high schools as part of an educational package. A book of the same title is also being offered.

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