C.S. Lewis and T.S. Eliot

At Prufrock this morning, there was a link to an article about the eventual friendship between T.S. Eliot and C.S. Lewis. Lewis detested Eliot's poetry and literary criticism but they did, finally, become good friends. From "C.S. Lewis and T.S. Eliot: A Tale of Two Critics."

The opening greeting, “My Dear Eliot,” from the pen of C.S. Lewis may not seem particularly notable, but that simple yet warm greeting from Lewis to Eliot in several letters from 1959 to 1960 was an achievement that took decades. Since the beginning of their respective careers there had been an entrenched coolness. But as they gathered in 1959, summoned by Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, to serve on the Committee to Revise the Psalter, impressions changed, and old prejudices evaporated as both men found that they held much in common. It appears that while they worked on the committee to preserve much of the Coverdale translation, which they both loved deeply, the personal gulf between the men was bridged. Soon the men were meeting together with their wives over lunch. Lewis, ever the accumulator of friends that differed from him greatly, made his peace with Eliot, remarking to Walter Hooper, “You know that I never cared for Eliot’s poetry and criticism, but when we met I loved him at once.” There is no noted change in Lewis’s attitude toward Eliot’s work, but he did find the man behind the words and counted him in the end as a friend. ....

Suspicions faded and Lewis met the man not the critic. Lunches with wives took place, letters were sent with warm and kind greetings—gone were the days of aiming at the officers in an attack. Soon an opportunity would appear for Eliot to aid his friend. While serving as editor at Faber and Faber, Eliot received a manuscript under a pseudonym. Knowing his friend and the death of Lewis’s wife, Joy, Eliot easily guessed the author. He was deeply moved by the manuscript that would become A Grief Observed (1961). Eliot not only published it but offered suggestions for a different pseudonym to honor the author’s wish to remain anonymous. ....

Lewis, ever the charitable dissenter, seemed to collect friends for the art of debate and disagreement, but he took a long time to come around to Eliot. .... (more)

Jackson Greer, "C.S. Lewis and T.S. Eliot: A Tale of Two Critics," Front Porch Republic, Jan 7, 2026.