Today we conclude “Jack’s Bookshelf” by examining his friend, the Inkling, Charles Williams.
S7E25: “Jack’s Bookshelf: Charles Williams” (Download)
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Show Notes
Introduction
Quote-of-the-week
As for the man, he is about 52, of humble origin (there are still traces of cockney in his voice), ugly as a chimpanzee but so radiant (he emanates more love than any man I have ever known) that as soon as he begins talking whether in private or in a lecture he is transfigured and looks like an angel. He sweeps some people quite off their feet and has many disciples. Women find him so attractive that if he were a bad man he cd. do what he liked either as a Don Juan or a charlatan.
C.S. Lewis, Letter To Arthur Greeves (Jan 30th, 1944)
Biographical Information
Sørina Higgins is an editor, writer, English teacher, and scholar of British modernist literature. In 2022, she founded the Signum University Press and worked as its first Editor-in-Chief. She has taught courses in literature, creative writing, and academic writing for over two decades in a variety of settings. She’s a writing consultant at Wyrdhoard, and you can hire her to help with your own writing!
She previously edited an academic essay collection entitled The Inklings and King Arthur. She is also the author of the blog The Oddest Inkling, devoted to a systematic study of Charles Williams’ works.
Dr. Higgins is currently writing From Thaumaturgy to Dramaturgy: Staging Occult Modernism, as well as The Oddest Inkling: An Introduction to Charles Williams, which is due out in 2024 from Apocryphile Press.
Biographical Information
Chit-Chat
- David mentioned a recently published book on Owen Barfield. He interviewed the authors here: S6E43 – AH – “What Barfield Thought”, After Hours with Landon Loftin and Dr. Max Leyf.
Toast
- David: Best Day Brewing West Coast IPA
- Guest: Earl Grey Tea with orange, honey, and oak milk
Discussion
01. “Background”
Q. Who was Charles Williams? What was his background?
02. “Meeting C. S. Lewis”
Q. How did Williams and Lewis meet?
- Williams was correcting The Allegory of Love by C.S. Lewis and Lewis was reading The Place of the Lion by Charles Williams
My dear Mr Lewis, If you had delayed writing another 24 hours our letters would have crossed. It has never before happened to me to be admiring an author of a book while he at the same time was admiring me. My admiration for the staff work of the Omnipotence rises every day.
Charles Williams, Letter to C. S. Lewis (12th March, 1936)
- Charles Williams wrote letters to his wife explaining that he was becoming close friends with T.S. Elliot
03. “Important author”
Q. What makes him such an important author, and what makes him such an important part of the Inklings?
- Charles Williams was in contact with W. H. Auden (Wikipedia) and W.B. Yeats (Wikipedia).
04. “Encountering Williams”
Q. What about for yourself? When did you first come across him, and what got you hooked?
If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.
Emily Dickinson
05. “Influences”
Q. Do we know about what books and authors shaped Williams?
- Williams was influenced by Virgil (Wikipedia), Dante Alighieri (Wikipedia), Coventry Patmore (Wikipedia), and Gerard Manley Hopkins (Wikipedia).
- Williams inspired Dorothy L. Sayers‘ love of Dante
06. “Key works”
Q. What were William’s key works?
- The Arthurian Poems of Charles Williams: Including Taliessin Through Logres and The Region of the Summer Stars with Other Poems by Charles Williams
- Witchcraft by Charles Williams
- The Descent of the Dove by Charles Williams
- Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury by Charles Williams
- Murder in the Cathedral: Verse Drama by T.S. Elliot
07. “Key idea #1: Correspondence”
Q. What was Williams’ world view?
- The Corpus Hermeticum by Hermes Trismegistus
08. “Key idea #2: Coinherence”
Q. Let’s talk about an idea that’s resonated with me the most: coinherence. Would you mind explaining what this is?
- Coinherence appears in the end of Till We Have Faces and The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
- Descent into Hell by Charles Williams
09. “Influencing the Inklings”
Q. How else did Williams influence the Inklings?
[Charles Wrenn] almost seriously expressed a strong wish to burn Williams, or at least maintained that conversation with Williams enabled him to understand how inquisitors had felt it right to burn people
C. S. Lewis, Letter to Warnie Lewis (5th November, 1939)
- Williams greatly influenced That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis. This is detailed in C. S. Lewis on the Final Frontier: Science and the Supernatural in the Space Trilogy by Sanford Schwartz
10. “Starting Williams’ Fiction”
Q. If someone has never read Charles Williams, how do they begin?
- Checkout The Oddest Inkling Readers Guide
- If you want to start with his novels, do not start with Shadows of Ecstacy! Instead start with either the The Place of the Lion or War in Heaven which has a plot and a sequel (Many Dimensions).
11. “Poetry”
Q. If someone wanted to start on his poetry, where should they start?
- Heroes and Kings by Charles Williams is short
- The Arthurian Poems of Charles Williams: Including Taliessin Through Logres and The Region of the Summer Stars with Other Poems by Charles Williams
- Apocryphilepress versions
12. “Theology”
Q. If people wanted to dive into his theological thought, where would they begin?
- He Came Down from Heaven by Charles Williams
- The Figure of Beatrice: A Study in Dante by Charles Williams
- The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
- Religion and Love in Dante: The Theology of Romantic Love by Charles Williams
