The New York Times versus C.S. Lewis

I do not know what Leonard is driving at when he accuses Lewis of tutoring “such disparate students as John Betjeman and Henry Green.” Presumably the reviewer, who has worked for such disparate publications as national review and the New York Times, means something.

Leonard must be commended for restraint. To a later reviewer, Lewis was not only ignorant of politics but “fatuously” ignorant. Lewis’ failing in this regard was due to his not keeping up with the daily papers, which, according to Carpenter, he considered inaccurate, sanctimonious, trivial, and incomprehensible.