A recent discovery by Dr. Steven Beebe, Regents' Professor and Chair of the Texas State Department of Communication Studies, may shake the literary community in the weeks and months ahead.
At Oxford University's Bodleian Library, Beebe discovered the opening pages of what appears to be joint project began by C.S. Lewis (author of The Chronicles of Narnia, among other things) and J.R.R. Tolking (most famously known as the author of The Lord of the Rings) in the early 1940s.
In 1944, J.R.R. Tolkien indicated in a letter to his son, Christopher, that the book collaboration was to be titled Language and Human Nature. A news release was even published, projecting the book's publication date to be some time in 1950.
The book, as Lewis and Tolkien fans now know, was never published. The scholarly concensus, up to this point, was that the project never actually began. The manuscript recently discovered by Beebe appears to be the work of Lewis alone, with no contribution from Tolkien.
In a press release posted last week by University News Service at Texas State University, Beebe said:
"What is exciting is that the manuscript includes some of Lewis' best and most precise statements about the nature of language and meaning... Beebe has written an article, documneting the discovery, titled " ", which will be published in 2010 in a periodical,
Beebe teaches a course on Lewis titled, "C.S. Lewis: Chronicles of a Master Communicator" at the campus of Texas State in San Marcos. This summer, Beebe will also teach a special class at Oxford University, with class meetings being held at a number of different Lewis-related locations throughout Oxford.
Beebe's recently discovered manuscript was found in a notebook, where in Lewis had written the word "Scraps." Beebe managed to spot the fragment by turning the notebook upside down and reading from the back to the front.
In the opening sentence, Lewis states that he is writing a book about the nature and origins of language. Due to Lewis's use of the phrase "our statements" as well as "authors consider", rather than the first person singular commonly used by Lewis has been pointed to as evidence that this is likely the project Lewis and Tolkien had planned to work on together.
The manuscript itself was found by Beebe a number of years ago. However, only recently has Beebe come to the conclusion, after years of research, that what he has found is the start of Language and Human Nature.
The manuscript is subject to copyright laws, and is not currently available for publication. Permission to publish has been sought from the Lewis estate, and the process is now underway.
For further information about this discovery, visit:
www.txstate.edu/news/news_releases/news_archive/2009/07/CSLewis070809.html
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