They Asked for a Paper

First edition
(cover by Michael Harvey)

They Asked for a Paper: Papers and Addresses is a collection of essays by C. S. Lewis.

This collection of twelve essays by C. S. Lewis was published by Geoffrey Bles in 1962.

It was Lewis's last book to be published in his lifetime, as he died on 22 November the following year.^[1]

The collection, not as coherent as some of the later collections, seems to include some of Lewis's thoughts on literary topics and people along with some of his thinking about the social sciences. One of the most important essays that appears in They Asked for a Paper is Lewis's inaugural address at the University of Cambridge, entitled "De Descriptione Temporum," Latin for "On a Description of the Times." The complete list of essays appearing in this work is the following:

• "De Descriptione Temporum"
• "Hamlet: The Prince or the Poem?"
• "The Inner Ring"
• "Is Theology Poetry?"
• "Kipling's World"
• "Lilies that Fester"
• "The Literary Impact of the Authorized Version"
• "On Obstinacy in Belief"
• "Psychoanalysis and Literary Criticism"
• "Sir Walter Scott"
• "Transposition"
• "The Weight of Glory"

References

External links

• Is Theology Poetry? presented by C. S. Lewis before the Socratic Club in 1944. (PDF, Canadian public domain edition)