EDITORnThomas FlemingnMANAGING EDITORnKatherine DaltonnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSnChilton Williamson, Jr.nASSISTANT EDITORnTheodore PappasnART DIRECTORnAnna Mycek-WodeckinCONTRIBUTING EDITORSnJohn W. Aldridge, Harold O.J.nBrown, Samuel Francis, GeorgenGarrett, Russell Kirk, E. ChristiannKopff, Clyde WilsonnCORRESPONDING EDITORSnJanet Scott Barlow, Odie Faulk,nJane Greer, John Shelton Reed,nGary VasilashnEDITORIAL SECRETARYnLeann DobbsnEDITORIAL INTERNnChristine HaynesnPUBLISHERnAllan C. CarlsonnASSOCIATE PUBLISHERnMichael WardernPUBLICATION DIRECTORnGuy C. Reffettn’ COMPOSITION MANAGERnAnita FedoranCIRCULATION MANAGERnRochelle FranknA publication of The Rockford Institute.nEditorial and Advertising Offices: 934 NorthnMain Street, Rockford, IL 61103.nEditorial Phone: (815) 964-5054.nAdvertising Phone: (815) 964-5811.nSubscription Department: P.O. Box 800, MountnMorris, IL 61054. Call I-800-435-07I5, innIllinois 1-800-892-0753.nFor information on advertising in Chronicles,nplease call Cathy Corson at (815) 964-5811.nU.S.A. Newsstand Distribution by EasternnNews Distributors, Inc., 11 30 Cleveland Road,nSandusky, OH 44870.nCopyright © 1990 by The Rockford Institute.nAll rights reserved.nChronicles (ISSN 0887-5731) is publishednmonthly for $21 per year by The RockfordnInstitute, 934 North Main Street, Rockford, ILn61103-7061.nSecond-class postage paid at Rockford, IL andnadditional mailing offices.nPOSTMASTER: Send address changes tonChronicles, P.O. Box 800, Mount Morris, ILn61054.nThe views expressed in Chronicles are thenauthors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect thenviews of The Rockford Institute or of itsndirectors. Unsolicited manuscripts cannot benreturned unless accompanied by a self-addressednstamped envelope.nChroniclesn4/CHRONICLESnMAGAZINE OF AMERICA ( U I I U R £nVol. 14. No. 9 September 1990nPOLEMICS & EXCHANGESnOn ‘Another Life’nC.S. Lewis is a major figure for at leastnthree reasons. He was a great, historiannof European literature; he was an importantncreative writer in the realm ofnNorthern mythology; he was the mostninfluential Christian lay teacher in thenEnglish-speaking world in our century.nThese things are not easily reconcilednand present great challenges for a biographer.nA.N. Wilson’s biography, reviewednby Lyle W. Dorsett in the June Chroniclesn(“Another Life of C.S. Lewis”),nis probably not the best biography thatnwill ever be written. Among othernthings, a definitive biography takes atnleast a half-century’s distance. It maynbe that Wilson is guilty of the pettynerrors that Dorsett chronicles andnothers as well. Wilson may be wrong innsome of his conclusions about Lewis’snprivate life. I myself disagree with hisnratings of some of Lewis’s books. However,na serious and independent-mindednwork on an important subject deservesna more careful treatment fromnChronicles than Dorsett has given it.nIf the biography is as defective asnDorsett contends, then we need ancritical analysis, not an attack on thenauthor’s competence and motives. Thencriticism that Wilson has not exhaustednall possible sources does not hold, fornthere is no reason to assume that morenresearch would have changed his interpretation.nThe review will serve tonscare off those who have not read thenbook. I read the book before I saw thenreview, and it did not convince me.nWilson says in his book, though lessnpointedly than I am stating it, thatnLewis has become a cult figure to twondifferent groups of Americans, each ofnwhich has a vested interest in presentingna limited piece of the man as thenwhole. First, a certain type of puritannfundamentalist, exemplified by thenWheaton College Lewis shrine. Second,npersons of a certain type of aestheticnsensibility who tend to becomenRoman converts.nThe first group declines to accountnfor the C.S. Lewis who drank andnsmoked all his life with old-fashionednnnBritish heartiness; whose main relationshipsnwith women were, if notndishonorable, at the least highly irregular;nand whose forays into mythology, ifnregarded honestly from a fundamentalistnviewpoint, would have to be consideredndiabolical. The second group cannotnaccount for that Lewis who was anbluff Ulsterman, who was baptized andnburied a plain Anglican, and whonpointedly refused to follow Chestertonnand Tolkien on the path to Rome.nMr. Dorsett seems to be speakingnfor the first group. The fact that bothnof these groups have received Wilson’snbiography with irritation and recriminationnis one of the best arguments innfavor of our further attention to thenbook.n— Clyde WilsonnColumbia, SCnOn ‘La Pasionarianof the Beltway’nI have been to Washington exactlyntwice in my life, and unless you countnan airport layover, I remain innocent ofnthe sinful pleasures of New York. Onnthe face of it, it would seem hard tonmark me down as a member of “PeggynNoonan’s Beltway claque.” But I getnthe impression from Jeffrey Hart’s reviewn(June 1990) that he is not one tonbe deterred by such minor details. Afternall, we have here a man who is shocked,nshocked to discover that an autobiographicalnwriting is well stocked withnfirst-person pronouns, and that a booknby a good-looking woman carries on itsncover a picture of the author without anbag over her head. Perhaps the samenthought process was behind his doggedndetermination to perceive this fundamentallyngood-natured book as beingnsuffused by “loathing.” I supposenwhen you look at the world through anhaze of hate, all objects take on thensame reddish tinge. Be that as it may,nit’s obvious that we’re dealing with —nshall we say? — a special kind of mind.nNot that that should surprise anyone.nThis performance was vintagenHart. Many readers will have instantlynrecognized the coxcomb swagger andn