For thirty years, the Oxford C.S. Lewis Society has met weekly in the medieval colleges of the University of Oxford. During that time, it has hosted as speakers nearly all those still living who were associated with the Inklings-the Oxford literary circle led by C.S. Lewis-, as well as authors and thinkers of a prominence that nears Lewis's own. C.S. Lewis and His Circle offers the reader a chance to join this unique group. Roger White has worked with Society past-presidents Brendan and Judith Wolfe to select the best unpublished talks, which are here made available to the public for the first time. They exemplify the best of traditional academic essays, thoughtful memoirs, and informal reminiscences about C.S. Lewis and his circle. The reader will re-imagine Lewis's Cosmic Trilogy with former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams; read philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe's final word on Lewis's arguments for Christianity; hear the Reverend Peter Bide's memories of marrying Lewis and Joy Davidman in an Oxford hospital; and learn about Lewis's Narnia Chronicles from his former secretary. Representing the finest of both personal and scholarly engagement with C.S. Lewis and the Inklings, the talks collected here set a new tone for engagement with this iconic Oxford literary circle-a tone close to Lewis's own Oxford-bred sharpness and wryness, seasoned with good humor and genuine affection for C.S. Lewis and his circle.

Thomas Jefferson considered the University of Virginia to be among his finest achievements-a living monument to his artistic and intellectual ambitions. Now, on the occasion of the University's bicentennial, Brendan Wolfe has assembled one hundred objects that, brought together in one fascinating book, offer a new, sometimes surprising history of Jefferson’s favorite project. Mr. Jefferson’s Telescope begins with the years leading up to the University's 1819 founding and continues to the triumphs and challenges of the present day, each entry joining a full-color image with an engaging description that both stands alone and contributes to an engrossing larger narrative about how the school has evolved over time. Considering an orange and blue silk handkerchief, Wolfe reveals that the University’s school colors were originally cardinal red and gray-calling to mind a Confederate soldier’s blood-stained uniform but ultimately deemed not bright enough to stand out on muddy football fields. The record of an overdue book checked out by a young Edgar Allan Poe speaks to a long literary tradition. On the subject of a key to the Rotunda’s doors, Wolfe introduces us to its keeper, the Monticello-born ex-slave who rang the hourly bells on Grounds into the early twentieth century. Beautifully illustrated with over one hundred new and archival images, this book brings to life a remarkable array of significant objects while offering to the reader the best introduction available to the history of Jefferson’s great institution.