Kathryn Lindskoog
Encyclopedia
Kathryn Lindskoog was a C. S. Lewis
scholar known largely for her theory that some works attributed to Lewis are forgeries, including The Dark Tower.
The main target of Lindskoog's writing was Walter Hooper
, Lewis's literary executor who edited most of Lewis's posthumous work. Lindskoog points out that Hooper's relationship with Lewis was overstated in some of the publications that he edited, and she argues that several works published under Lewis's name were in fact by Hooper.
C. S. Lewis' stepson, Douglas Gresham
, denies the forgery claims, saying that "The whole controversy thing was engineered for very personal reasons... Her fanciful theories have been pretty thoroughly discredited."http://www.narniafans.com/?id=1235 Lewis scholars are divided about the merits of Lindskoog's charges, but some of them have since been disproved by discovery of Lewis's own typescripts. Much of her perceived animosity against Hooper may have been derived from disappointment that she was not given any role in dealing with his literary legacy, though Lewis acknowledged her as knowledgeable about his bibliography. The controversy was analysed by Nicolas Barker in 'Essays in criticism' (see reference), where he calls Lindskoog's work "a poisoned book".
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
scholar known largely for her theory that some works attributed to Lewis are forgeries, including The Dark Tower.
The main target of Lindskoog's writing was Walter Hooper
Walter Hooper
Walter McGehee Hooper is a trustee and literary advisor of the estate of C.S. Lewis. Born in Reidsville, North Carolina, U.S., he earned an M.A. in education and was an instructor in English at the University of Kentucky in the early 1960s. As a visitor to England, he served briefly as Lewis's...
, Lewis's literary executor who edited most of Lewis's posthumous work. Lindskoog points out that Hooper's relationship with Lewis was overstated in some of the publications that he edited, and she argues that several works published under Lewis's name were in fact by Hooper.
C. S. Lewis' stepson, Douglas Gresham
Douglas Gresham
Douglas Gresham is an American-born British biographer and film producer, resident in Malta, and one of the two stepsons of C. S. Lewis.- Personal life :...
, denies the forgery claims, saying that "The whole controversy thing was engineered for very personal reasons... Her fanciful theories have been pretty thoroughly discredited."http://www.narniafans.com/?id=1235 Lewis scholars are divided about the merits of Lindskoog's charges, but some of them have since been disproved by discovery of Lewis's own typescripts. Much of her perceived animosity against Hooper may have been derived from disappointment that she was not given any role in dealing with his literary legacy, though Lewis acknowledged her as knowledgeable about his bibliography. The controversy was analysed by Nicolas Barker in 'Essays in criticism' (see reference), where he calls Lindskoog's work "a poisoned book".
Partial bibliography
- Surprised by C.S. Lewis George Macdonald and Dante: A Batch of New Discoveries
- Sleuthing C.S. Lewis: More Light in the Shadowlands
- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christian
- Light in the Shadowlands: Protecting the Real C.S. Lewis.
- The C. S. Lewis Hoax
- Finding the Landlord: A Guidebook to C.S. Lewis' Pilgrim's Regress (Chicago: Cornerstone Press, 1995)
- Barker, Nicolas: C. S. Lewis, darkly, in Essays in criticism, XL (1990), 358–367, also in his 'Form and meaning in the history of the book', 2003.
External links
- Kathryn Lindskoog site via Internet Archive
- Holy War in the Shadowlands (Chronicle of Higher Education)