The Cursive Code: Discoveries from C.S. Lewis's Handwriting

By mapping changes in C.S. Lewis’s handwriting, Charlie W. Starr has discovered a tool for dating undated or otherwise undateable Lewis manuscripts with surprising results and discoveries. Dr. Starr will take the audience through manuscript images of Lewis’s hand to show his method for dating the handwriting and will share surprising discoveries made in researching rare Lewis documents including the discovery of a “lost” Screwtape sequel, the truth about the “Pudaita Pie” manuscript, Lewis’s earliest writing on a theory of myth, and the place of poetry in his theistic conversation. The audience will be invited to participate in using Dr. Starr’s Lewis Handwriting Chart (LHC) to date manuscripts from throughout Lewis’s life.

Charlie W. Starr, D.A. is a Professor of English at Alderson Broaddus University in West Virginia and Visiting Professor of Inklings Studies at Northwind Seminary. He teaches, writes, and lectures on Classic and Appalachian literature, film, humanities, and theology, and on the works of C. S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Owen Barfield. Charlie has published over a hundred articles and essays, a dozen chapters for book anthologies, nine books, and over thirty never-before seen C. S. Lewis manuscripts, including a lost sequel to The Screwtape Letters. He has been hailed as the world’s leading expert on C. S. Lewis’s handwriting.

This event is free and open to the public and will take place in Marion E. Wade Center, Bakke Auditorium, located at 351 East Lincoln Avenue in Wheaton on the Northwest corner of campus at the intersection of Washington Street and Lincoln Avenue. Parking is located on the East side of Washington St. For more information, contact the Wade Center at wade@wheaton.edu.