- MCPP/CSL
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Part of Personal Papers
C.S. Lewis was appointed the first Professor of Medieval & Renaissance English at Cambridge and moved from Magdalen College, Oxford, to take up the position in 1954. He was made a Professorial Fellow of Magdalene College in 1954, and he had rooms in First Court. He was made an Honorary Fellow in 1963 and died on 22 November 1963. A Memorial Service was held in the Chapel..
He described his move as a 'great success' and described Magdalene in the following terms:
‘My new college is a smaller, softer, more gracious place than my old. The mental and social atmosphere is like the sunny side of a wall in an old garden'; ‘A tiny little place … but a perfect gem architecturally and (I think) much more congenial socially and spiritually.’
See Walter Hooper (ed)., Collected Letters, 3 vols. (2000-2006), esp. Vol. III 'Narnia, Cambridge & Joy, 1950-1963'.
In addition to the letters in this archive, Hooper prints his ‘Easter hymn’ (F/FT/3); a letter about Canon Tibbats; and a letter about the possible deposit of Kipling’s papers in the College (p. 1261, 4 May 1961).
For other letters of College interest, see W.H. Lewis (ed) Letters of C.S. Lewis , p. 289 (Lady Willink's death), p. 293 (unexpurgated Pepys), and p. 308 (Hon. Fellowship).
Most of C.S. Lewis's papers are held in the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
Lewis, C.S. (1898-1963), writer and Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge