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The Original Tea with Mr Tumnus

PostPosted: August 29th, 2006, 1:28 pm
by Guest
Thanks Sven for the answer to my last question, re. a "Tea with Mr Tumnus" story for very young children.
Perhaps I didn't put my question very well, though! I'm trying to track down the volume of children's stories in which a story of that description first appeared. Whether it's the same version that's now been published separately I'm not sure--but am doubtful. The version I had as a child must have been published in the early 1970s at the latest, but was very likely a reprint of a book published earlier, perhaps in CSL's lifetime. It was a large book containing many children's stories and probably introduced many children back then to Narnia.
Again, any help with be much appreciated!

re: The Original Tea with Mr Tumnus

PostPosted: August 29th, 2006, 7:49 pm
by Sven
If you mean Tea with Mr. Tumnus published with other stories by other authors, I've never heard of such a thing. Same with any part of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe being seperately published back in the 70s or earlier. I checked in Hooper's Companion, which has the most exhaustive Lewis bibliography as of 1996, and he doesn't have anything like that listed, eithier. The only thing I can think of is that you're conflating in memory a copy of LWW with another book.

Not trying to be rude or anything, but you are aware that Tea with Mr. Tumnus is just a abridged version of a chapter of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?

Prior to 1980, the publications of LWW include:
1. UK, the Bles hardback edition, starting in 1950
2. UK, the Puffin paperback edition, starting in 1959
3. UK, the Collins hardback 'Evergreen Library' edition, in 1965
4. UK, the Collins hardback edition, starting in 1974
5. US, the Macmillan hardback edition, starting in 1950
6. US, the collier paperback edition, starting in 1970

re: The Original Tea with Mr Tumnus

PostPosted: August 31st, 2006, 5:57 am
by carol

re: The Original Tea with Mr Tumnus

PostPosted: September 17th, 2006, 2:59 pm
by Guest
The querist is correct: the story appears in Hilda Boswell's Treasury of Children's Stories where it is called "Lucy's Adventure in Narnia." It must have introduced a lot of children to Narnia.

re: The Original Tea with Mr Tumnus

PostPosted: September 17th, 2006, 5:50 pm
by Sven

re: The Original Tea with Mr Tumnus

PostPosted: September 26th, 2006, 8:02 pm
by Sven
Thanks to our guest's query and update, I now have a copy of Hilda Boswell's Treasury of Children's Stories. It does indeed have the story of Lucy meeting Mr. Tumnus in it, as illustrated by the editor Ms. Boswell.



The book is published by Wm. Collins Sons & Co. in London with a copyright of 1971. The ISBN is 0-00-120304-5. Permission to include the Lewis material was given by Geoffrey Bles Ltd.

Some of the other excerpts/stories in the book are:
'The Road to Dover' from David Copperfield,
'The Substitute' from Stuart Little,
'A Day on the Alm' from Heidi,
'Tom' from The Water Babies,
and Oscar Wilde's 'The Selfish Giant'.

The copy I found was, if I'm deciphering the scrawl properly, was originally owned by a Jill Margelis of 999 Queens Terrace. :grin:


I'm moving this thread from the Homework forum to the Narnia forum for future reference.