PART TWO - CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
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185.
NARNIA BOOKS INSCRIBED BY C.S. LEWIS C.S. Lewis gave these inscribed copies of The Magician’s Nephew and The Last Battle to Mary Telfer, who gave them to her two nieces for their sixth birthday in October 1957. They have remained in the same family ever since. Mary Telfer was a nurse at Napsbury Hospital. It is possible that she played some part in helping C.S. Lewis or his wife after she was discharged from the Wingfield Morris Hospital in Headington in April 1957. A letter to Arthur Greeves on 5 April mentions a resident nurse and another a week or so later states “We have two nurses” . Inscribed copies of the Narnia books are extremely rare and seldom seen in commerce. Lewis tended to only inscribe them for children, usually of academic contemporaries of his. As recipients of the original books grew out of childhood, Lewis sought not to patronise them by giving them a book they might consider childish. As a conse- quence, copies of the later books seem particularly uncommon in an inscribed state.
184. LEWIS, C. S. THE MAGICIAN’S NEPHEW Macmillan, 1955. First US edition. Original sage green cloth lettered in black on the spine in supplied dustwrapper. Author’s presentation copy, inscribed on the front endpaper, “Miss Mary Telfer with gratitude from C.S.Lewis April 1957”. Illustrated throughout in line by Baynes. A good copy, the spine ends and corners somewhat worn and the spine browned. Large juvenile own- ership inscription and address on the front endpaper, be- neath Lewis’ inscription, of Rosemary Vair-Turnbull, Telfer’s niece to whom she gave the book. In a very good (supplied) dustwrapper, with some wear to the corners and spine ends. [44215] £8,500
185. LEWIS, C.S. THE LAST BATTLE Macmillan, 1956. First US edition. Turquoise boards lettered in black in sup- plied dustwrapper. Author’s presentation copy, inscribed by C.S.Lewis to the front endpaper, “Miss Mary Telfer with much gratitude from C.S.Lewis April 1957” Illustrated in black and white by Pauline Baynes. A good copy, somewhat worn to the spine corners with pen marks to the rear cover and abrasion from the erasure of juvenile handwriting to the endpapers, in a very good (supplied) dustwrapper with a small chip to the rear panel. [44213] £15,000
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