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The Chronicles of Narnia: 50 Years

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The Chronicles of Narnia: 50 Years

Postby Reep » September 2nd, 2006, 12:18 am

Fifty years ago, on the 4th day of September 1956, "The Last Battle" appeared in the United States. The very last volume of The Chronicles of Narnia - completing this series of seven books begun in England on 16 October 1950.
Of course not many will consider this very significant. Still I would like to use this occasion to share my personal list of the Chronicles which I find very helpful as I am also exploring C.S. Lewis' life:

2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, 1950
was published in London by Geoffrey Bles on October 16th
and in New York by Macmillan on November 7th.
4. Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia, 1951
was published by Geoffrey Bles in England on October 15th,
by Macmillan in the U.S. the following day: October 16th.
5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 1952
by Geoffrey Bles on September 15,
by Macmillan on September 30.
6. The Silver Chair, 1953
Geoffrey Bles on September 7
Macmillan on October 5
3. The Horse and His Boy, 1954
Geoffrey Bles September 6
Macmillan October 5
1. The Magician's Nephew, 1955
The Bodley Head in London on May 2
Macmillan October 4th
7. The Last Battle, 1956
The Bodley Head in the UK on March 19th
and Macmillan in the US on 1956 September 4th.

The year 1956 was also very significant for the entire C.S. Lewis family. In the morning of April 23, 1956, Jack Lewis and Joy Davidman Gresham were secretly married at Oxford's Register Office. In the evening of October 18, 1956, at 10 Old High Street, Joy Lewis fell, broke her left hip and was taken to the Wingfield Hospital (where she remained until the end of March) . In early December 1956 David and Douglas, her boys and adopted sons of Jack, found their new home at 1 Kiln Lane in Oxford-Headington.

P.S. Right now a complete first edition set of The Seven Chronicles is being offered by Abebooks.com for "only" 29,415 dollars. :wink:
Last edited by Reep on March 3rd, 2007, 11:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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re: The Chronicles of Narnia: 50 Years

Postby Messenger_of_Eden » September 2nd, 2006, 5:48 am

WOW!! to have that set would be amazing. But I am happy to have one at all--they all say the same thing after all!!

Thanks for that info Reep. Obviously we are all fans, but there is something just a little more intimate about reviewing such dates. Cool.
"If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself."--St. Augustine of Hippo
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re: The Chronicles of Narnia: 50 Years

Postby A#minor » September 2nd, 2006, 5:32 pm

"My brain and this world don't fit each other, and there's an end of it!" - G.K. Chesterton
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re: The Chronicles of Narnia: 50 Years

Postby Carrie » September 3rd, 2006, 2:06 am

Are we going to have a party to celebrate? Maybe we should all commit to reading (or rereading) TLB again.
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re: The Chronicles of Narnia: 50 Years

Postby ArdenZ » September 5th, 2006, 3:12 am

"The master of that servant will come on the day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour that he is not aware of."
Matthew 24:50
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re: The Chronicles of Narnia: 50 Years

Postby King Edmund » September 8th, 2006, 4:20 pm

Without my friends or cousins, I don't make sense. Life would be somewhere not worth my time.

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Narnia: 56 Years

Postby Reep » October 15th, 2006, 12:31 am

.
On 16 October 1950 the door of the Magic Wardrobe was opened to the world for the very first time and Lucy Barfield led the first outside visitors into the magical land of Narnia - which Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter Pevensie had entered ten years ago. Hundreds, thousands and then millions followed; many of us returning there again and again.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of this day, 2000 September 30, HarperTrophy published a beautiful full-color Collector's Edition of all seven Chronicles with the original black-and-white pictures hand-painted by their author Pauline Baynes herself. It still remains the best seven volume set so far, sold in a covenient slipcase and very easy to arrange in any preferable sequence (ISBN 0064409392).

Here it is compared to two volumes of the first edition. Since the years of publication are the only real numbers distinguishing each volume, they are also attached - having been printed and cut out of one large self-adhesive label.

P.S. The Chronicles of Narnia were complete in 1956. Narnia itself appeared six years earlier.



.
Last edited by Reep on August 4th, 2007, 7:25 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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re: The Chronicles of Narnia: 50 Years

Postby carol » October 15th, 2006, 9:10 am

There are a few special books coming out for the Christmas market this year.

They include some hardbacks. (this is info I was given by a Harper Collins person recently)

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re: Narnia: 56 Years

Postby Reep » October 16th, 2006, 5:19 pm

.
:smile: HAPPY BIRTHDAY NARNIA!! :blush:

65 million copies in 30 languages in 56 years! :dance:
Last edited by Reep on August 4th, 2007, 7:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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A Year Later

Postby Reep » March 4th, 2007, 1:28 am

.
In two more weeks The Chronicles of Narnia will be 51 years old. On 19 March 1956 The Bodley Head in London published The Last Battle, finally making the entire series of seven books complete. The official, 16 February 2007, press release on Prince Caspian says that over 100 million copies of The Chronicles have so far been sold. They also say that alone the 2005 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe movie has already earned over 745 million dollars.

In two more days it will be FIFTY YEARS since Rev. Peter William Bide celebrated the marriage of Jack Lewis and Joy Gresham about a mile from where the Chronicles were written - at the Wingfield-Morris Hospital, at 11 AM of 21 March 1957. Rev. Peter also layed his hands on dying Joy and prayed for her healing. She slowly began to recover and lived with Jack for another three very happy years.

On 21 March 2007 many people all over the world will be celebrating the first day of spring. The Spring Equinox is seven minutes after midnight in Oxford this year.

In the evening I will be watching Shadowlands.
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The Chronicles: Place and Time

Postby Reep » August 4th, 2007, 12:12 am

.
Just wanted to try to share an interesting picture of The Kilns - of the house in which The Chronicles of Narnia were written. Not only looking North but also East, South or West:
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&c ... &encType=1
(Try ^, +/- and also the "folded map" under 3D.)

And also four chronologies of the seven books:
1. The real chronology of composition (completion):
LWW 1949 March, PC 1949 December, VDT 1950 February;
HHB 1950 July, SC 1951 March, LB 1953 March, MN 1954 February.
2. The real chronology of publication (printing):
LWW 1950 October, PC 1951 October, VDT 1952 September;
SC 1953 September, HHB 1954 September, MN 1955 May, LB 1956 March.
3. The fictional English chronology:
MN 1900, LWW 1940, HHB 1940, PC 1941, VDT 1942, SC 1942, LB 1949.
4. The fictional Narnian chronology:
MN Year 1, LWW Year 1000, HHB 1014, PC 2303, VDT 2306, SC 2356, LB 2555.
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Happy Birthday Narnia!

Postby Reep » October 14th, 2007, 9:21 pm

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Postby carol » October 15th, 2007, 9:55 am

Can you please quote your sources for the following claims in the above:

1. that Lewis wrote the stories because of a four year old girl.
2. that the girls who stayed in his house were in their teens (it seems surprising to send girls this age to live with two middle aged men!)
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Re: Happy Birthday Narnia!

Postby fgiusepp » October 15th, 2007, 4:42 pm

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Postby Dan65802 » October 15th, 2007, 5:15 pm

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