The Poet C.S. Lewis Loved–Ruth Pitter

Well, love may be a strong word for it. Lewis kept a discrete distance from women, at least until he married his wife Joy Davidman. But he is said to have remarked to a friend–before meeting Joy–that if he were the marrying kind, Ruth Pitter would have been a good choice.

Lewis admired Pitter for many things but especially for her poetry. Pitter eventually won the Queen’s Gold Medal for poetry, the Hawthornden Prize and was named a Commander of the British Empire. She was also a member of the Royal Society of Literature.

Lewis came to know her through letters. She wrote to him first shortly after she experienced conversion by listening to Lewis’s war-time talks that later became the book Mere Christianity, astonishingly still a best-selling title today.

So far as I know, Pitter is utterly out of print in the United States, and it is very hard to find any of her poetry except for a couple of early pieces that are online. Lewis praised her highly.

What a service it would be to bring her back into print in the States! Harold Shaw Publishers would have been my nomination to bring her out, if they were still doing that kind of thing.

What do you say? Is there someone out there who is interested? Best of luck to you.