by hand_carved » December 10th, 2006, 9:51 pm
Stanley,
Wow, I didn't even realize that the accusations were that thick with malcontent...sheesh. Talk about "poisoning the well"... All I know is that I am a completely unimportant Nobody, and there is really no reason for Hooper to have even seen my wife and I for tea, and yet he did--not just once but twice. I had brought my copy of his biography on Lewis for him to sign, but I left it at his home on accident. So I rang him the next day so that I could pick it up, and when I stopped by, despite the fact that he was extremely busy trying to get Volume 3 of the letters finished, he invited my wife and me in for tea yet again, and we talked for another hour. Not only that, but he got a brand new copy of a more recent version of his biography (which is only available in England), and he said, "Was this what you were looking for?" And he had put a note in it and signed it and everything. Also, I was really astonished at how genuinely interested he seemed to be in both my wife and me--again, completely unimportant people. As we conversed, he would ask questions about us, and look us in the eye, and smile... This is not something you typically get from "important" people such as Hooper. For example, later we had the privilege of spending some time with another very "important" figure in the Lewis legacy, and did not receive near the kind of humble, warm reception as we did from Hooper. It seems like a "con-man" (give me a break...) would not take such great pains for people who can't do anything for him.
Also, I think I'd agree with you on what I've heard about Lindskoog's accusations. If Till We Had Faces were to be published post-humously, I imagine that she would have brought some of the same accusations because it is almost completely different style from what we get in his other books. In Lindkoog's Finding the Landlord (which, by the way, is an excellent resource on Pilgrim's Regress), she sews her dissatisfaction with "the editor" (I will at least tip my hat to her for not mentioning his name) especially when speaking of Lewis's poems and their titles. I tend to agree with her on some of her suggestions regarding the poems, but her criticisms just seemed out of place in a book about Regress. Oh well... I guess I have to at least hand it to her for having the ... (well...I guess that wouldn't be appropriate)... "guts" to stand up for what she believed in, despite people like me shaking our heads and rolling our eyes.
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