I will begin with Huxley, perhaps best known for Brave New World, in which he examined the dehumanizing aspects of scientific progress. But he wrote other powerful works as well. I remember as a high school junior reading Eyeless in Gaza, in which Huxley explored the pacifist themes that had such an influence on his own life.
His own life, one that intersected with the lives of many other influential thinkers and writers. He briefly (and incompetently) taught French to school students, one of whom, Eric Blair, later himself became a famous writer under his pen name of George Orwell. But Huxley was acquainted with Bertrand Russell, whom he met while he himself worked as a farm laborer during the Great War. He was a friend of D. H. Lawrence, whose letters he edited after that novelist passed in 1930.He knew Christopher Isherwood, was influenced himself by Krishnamurta, and himself became a follower of Vedanta. He wrote on spiritual values, The Perennial Philosophy, and psychodelics, The Doors of Perception. He was a screenwriter in Hollywood, an editor and a poet.
He lived in the U. S. beginning in 1937, applied for U. S. Citizenship after World War II but repeatedly found his application deferred - he refused to commit to take up arms to defend the United States, but stated a philosophical rather than a religious objection, and thus was not exempt under the McCarran Act. He eventually withdrew his application.
There are other wonderful works from his pen. Some I remember reading include The Devils of Loudun, After Many a Summer Dies a Swan, Island, , Chrome Yellow, Antic Hay, Ape and Essence, and The Genius and the Goddess. If they do not appear in the list in chronological order, it is because that is the order in which I read them, and had I any doubt, I could go down to a bookshelf in my basement on which the copies from a period beginning in high school and continuing into my early twenties I read and reread his work.
I encountered Clive Staples Lewis much later, in my late twenties, when after the breakup of a previous relationship I found myself on spiritual exploration that began in an Anglo-catholic Episcopal Parish not far from Haverford College. Lewis was one whose books were featured at the church's book table, and those guiding me were fond of his writing. For some Lewis is the wonderful author of children's literature, most notably in his Chronicles of Narnia, which maintain a childlike attitude while writing serious Christian apology - after all, Aslan the lion is a Christ avatar. He wrote a space trilogy, contain the three novels of Out of the Silent Planet, Perelendra, and That Hideous Strength. Lewis felt that modern science fiction had lost humanity, and sought to reestablish it.
He was an outstanding scholar, having served as a professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature, first as a Fellow at Magdalen College Oxford, later at Cambridge. While at Oxford he became close friends with J. R. R. Tolkien, who was the person perhaps most influential in bringing Lewis back to Christianity. It was as a Christian Apologist that I got to know Lewis in depth, although I had read the 2nd of the Space trilogy, Perelendra, earlier. His body of work in this field is monumental.
Consider just a few of his major works in this field:
Surprised by Joy
Mere Christianity
The Four Loves
The Pilgrim's Regress
The Great Divorce
The Pilgrim's Regress
Letters to Malcolm
The Screwtape Letters
He continued to write in other fields - his final contribution to the scholarly world was The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature, which was not published until after his death.
Like Huxley his life intersected with other important figures. Besides Tolkien, his friends while Oxford include Charles Williams (and if you do not know his novels, they are a wonderful exploration of Christian themes; he also wrote on non-fiction themes with elegance); Owen Barfield, and his own brother Warren, with whom he lived.
He taught and influenced others - among his students were John Betjeman (who detested him) and Kenneth Tynan (who greatly admired him).
There is another side of Lewis that some have come to know through video presentations of it, and that was his relationship with American Joy Gresham, many years his junior, who became his wife. There are two books that can help you understand that relationship, and the impact it had upon Lewis. One is his own, written after Joy's Death - A Grief Observed. It is in my opinion a profound exploration of one man's inner life, an ability to recognize not only pain and loss but growth. Let it suffice to say the Lewis recognized that while he married Joy to provide her legal protection, he grew greatly from the brief time they had together.
The other is by an American, who became friends with Lewis while himself studying in England. His name is Sheldon Vanauken and the book, A Severe Mercy, had a profound effect upon me when I read it.
Unlike Huxley, Lewis was not a pacifist as a young man, seeing service in the Great War, serving as an officer, being wounded in trench warfare, later returning to Oxford where he earned a Triple Firsts - a rare academic accomplishment. Lewis was concerned with morality in many dimensions, and I have sometimes wondered how much of that was in part a result of his own experiences of the fragility of life during the War.
Some find Lewis too conservative. That may be. Others find him moralistic. I think that selective reading of his work could lead one to many misconceptions. He was steeped in literature from his youth, including Irish literature, Norse literature, Greek Literature, etc. He was an early admirer of W. B. Yeats. He appreciated the writing of others, acknowledging the impact a work of fiction could have, pointing out that his own imagination was baptized by reading George MacDonald's in his teens, although he did not return to Christianity, and then reluctantly, until much later.
These were two giants. The loss on the same day of two such figures might normally have garnered a lot of attention in the general press, but their passings went largely unnoticed because of the events in Dallas the same day.
While I have clear memories of my own experience of the assassination, I choose this day to remind people of the two authors. I noted Huxley's passing at the time, because I had familiarity with his writing beyond his best-known work. I saw mention of Lewis, but his name did not then register with me. When I began to delve into his voluminous writings on many topics, I vaguely remembered his passing, and looked it up to be sure, that yes, he too had died on that November day, a Friday.
54 years ago today the world suffered great loss. I do not mind that we as Americans focus on Kennedy. It was a loss of innocence for much of the world, it was a shock to many.
But we should also remember those two titans of the written word, Aldous Huxley and C. S. Lewis.
Peace.