October 16, 1950: C.S. Lewis Begins His "Chronicles of Narnia"

October 16, 1950: C.S. Lewis publishes The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, beginning his Chronicles of Narnia series.

Clive Staples Lewis was born on November 29, 1898 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He taught at Oxford University, where he became close friends with his colleague J.R.R. Tolkien, to whom The Screwtape Letters was dedicated. In 1937, Tolkein published The Hobbit, establishing himself as a prominent fantasy writer, and would write sequels in the 1950s, which became the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Tolkien was a Catholic. Lewis had been raised in largely-Catholic, but Protestant-controlled, Ireland as an atheist, but Tolkien's influence led him to Christianity. Except it was to the Protestant Church of England, so, from a certain point of view, Tolkien's efforts backfired somewhat.

Lewis' writings would be heavy with Christian imagery, including his own 1950s fantasy stories that would be collected under the title The Chronicles of Narnia. Lewis empathized with children who were suffering under the wartime conditions in Britain, and imagined a world where they could be heroes instead of victims. He described the origin of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in an essay entitled "It All Began with a Picture":

The Lion all began with a picture of a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood. This picture had been in my mind since I was about sixteen. Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself: "Let's try to make a story about it."

Narnia is a fantasy world of magic, mythical beasts and talking animals. It narrates the adventures of various children who play central roles in the unfolding history of the Narnian world. In order of publication, the books are:

1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, published in 1950.

2. Prince Caspian, 1951.

3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 1952.

4. The Silver Chair, 1953.

5. The Horse and His Boy, 1954.

6. The Magician's Nephew, 1955.

7. The Last Battle, 1956.

Except in The Horse and His Boy, the protagonists are all children from the real world who are magically transported to Narnia, where they are sometimes called upon by the lion Aslan to protect Narnia from evil. In the 1st, Aslan, the region's true king, wants to free the land from the White Witch, who has turned it into a land "where it is always Winter, but never Christmas." For this, he enlists the help of the Pevensie children: Peter, 13 when the story begins in 1940, our time; Susan, 12; Edmund, 10; and Lucy, 8.

The books span the entire history of Narnia, from its creation in The Magician's Nephew to its eventual destruction in The Last Battle -- 2,500 years later from Narnia's perspective, but only 49 years later from Earth's. Spoiler Alert for a book over 60 years old: It's not as bad as it sounds, because Lewis' faith led him to write of Aslan leading his followers into the afterlife.

C.S. Lewis died on the same day as another renowned British writer, Aldous Huxley. Hardly anybody noticed, because that day was November 22, 1963, the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Tolkien lived another 10 years.

The 1st 3 books in the series were made into live-action, CGI-aided films in 2005, 2008 and 2010, respectively. Liam Neeson -- from Ballymena, about 30 miles from Lewis' Strandtown neighborhood of Belfast -- provided the voice of Aslan.

Neeson made his film debut in 1978, in Pilgrim's Progress, playing Jesus. In the 2010 version of Clash of the Titans, he played Zeus, king of the Greek Gods. And on a 2017 episode of The Orville, he played Captain Jahavus Dorahl, the descendants of whose crew had long since forgotten he was a mortal man, and worshipped him. So he has played a god in 4 different religions. I don't know if that's a record, but it's got to be at least close to one.

The joke continues: He played Qui-Gon Jinn, so he trained Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader; and Ra's al-Ghul, so he trained Batman. He played Sir Gawain, who fought at the side of King Arthur. As Michael Collins, he liberated his country. As Oskar Schindler, he saved 1,000 Jews from the Holocaust. He's also played Rob Roy, Jean Valjean, Douglas MacArthur, Philip Marlowe and Mark "Deep Throat" Felt. He also punches wolves. So why, as in the film Taken, would anyone try to kidnap a member of his family?

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October 16, 1950 was a Monday. The baseball season had ended 9 days earlier, with the New York Yankees completing a 4-game sweep of the World Series over the Philadelphia Phillies. The NBA season began 2 weeks later. The NHL season was underway, but no games were scheduled. And football was in midweek. There would be no Monday Night Football for another 20 years. Therefore, there were no scores on this historic day.

However, this was also the day that Walter O'Malley won -- at a price that he was stunned that he would have to pay -- his power struggle with Branch Rickey over the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team. I have a separate entry for that event.