A great date in the history of English literature! Three authors, all of them on my list of 100 best fiction books of all time, were born on this date.

1. C.S. Lewis, b. 1898. We’re going to a pre-screening of the new Narnia movie on December 8th, a little over a week from today. I sincerely hope the movie hasn’t been over-hyped and won’t be a disappointment. However, even if it has and even if it is, I can always go back and re-read the books. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, in particular, has a wonderful Christmas-y theme to it, and I would be happy to enjoy it again with a cup of hot chocolate sitting near the Christmas tree. Several bloggers wrote about C.S. Lewis on the anniversary of his death, November 22nd , so you can enjoy these tributes:
Jared at Mysterium: Honoring Jack
Alaso Jared at Thinklings: Remembering Jack
Brian at Memento Moron: I Wish I Knew Jack
Lars Walker at Brandywine Books: The Feast of St. Jack and on the 23rd The Great Man’s Headgear

2. Louisa May Alcott, b. 1832.

“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

“It’s so dreadful to be poor!” sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

“I don’t think it’s fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all,” added little Amy, with an injured sniff.

“We’ve got Father and Mother, and each other,” said Beth contentedly from her corner.

The four young faces on which the firelight shone brightened at the cheerful words, but darkened again as Jo said sadly, “We haven’t got Father, and shall not have him for a long time.” She didn’t say “perhaps never,” but each silently added it, thinking of Father far away, where the fighting was.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Today seems a as good a day as any to remind you and myself to pray for those who are far away, where the fighting is.

3. Madeleine L’Engle, b. 1918. I have two Christmas books by Mrs. L’Engle, and I’ve asked for one of her books on my Christmas list.
You may want to look for the following books at the library or in the bookstore; I think either one would enrich your Christmas celebration:

The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas: An Austin Family Story tells of the arrival of a Christmas baby during a snowstorm.
Miracle on Tenth Street and Other Christmas Writings includes the story above and other Christmas stories and poems by Madeleine L’Engle. A Full House, another Austin family story, is one of our favorites; we read it every year.

Are any of you fans of these three authors? Which of their books are your favorites? Little Women is good, but my favorite Alcott book is Rose in Bloom. On my list I mentioned two books by Madeleine L’Engle, A Ring of Endless Light and A Severed Wasp, but tonight I’m thinking that my true favorite of all her books is one that’s not as famous, Love Letters, a book about an American woman who runs away from her troubled marriage and ends up in Portugal identifying with the equally troubled life of a sixteenth century Portuguese nun. Not a Christmas story, but I highly recommend it.

As for C.S. Lewis, how could I possibly choose just one? My favorite Narnia book is The Horse and His Boy because it has the best story and the richest lessons, but Lewis’s other fiction books and his nonfiction are all just as rewarding and enjoyable as the Chronicles of Narnia. Just take a year or two and read them all.

He was born on this date in 1821.

While he was at school, his father was murdered by his own servants at the family’s small country estate.

He graduated from engineering school but chose a literary career.

He was arrested and charged with subversion because of his meetings with a group of intellectuals to discuss politics and literature. He and several of his associates were imprisoned and sentenced to death. As they were facing the firing squad, an imperial messenger arrived with the announcement that the death sentences had been commuted to four years in prison and four years of military service..

While in prison, his intense study of the New Testament, the only book the prisoners were allowed to read, contributed to his rejection of his earlier liberal political views and led him to the conviction that redemption is possible only through suffering and faith.

In 1867, he fled to Europe with his second wife to escape creditors.

He returned home and finished what many consider to be his greatest novel two months before his death in 1881

Quotes by Mr. X:

“Man only likes to count his troubles, but he does not count his joys.”
“It’s life that matters, nothing but life–the process of discovering, the everlasting and perpetual process, not the discovery itself at all.”
“So long as man remains free he strives for nothing so incessantly and so painfully as to find some one to worship.”
“If there is no God, then I am God.”
“Taking a new step, uttering a new word is what people fear most.”

Quotes about Mr. X:

“…the only psychologist from whom I have anything to learn.” – Nietzsche
“. . . gives me more than any scientist, more than Gauss.” – Albert Einstein
“an author whose Christian sympathy is ordinarily devoted to human misery, sin, vice, the depths of lust and crime, rather than to nobility of body and soul” -Thomas Mann
“..the nastiest Christian I’ve ever met”.-Turgenev
“He was in the rank in which we set Dante, Shakespeare and Goethe.” – Edwin Muir
“My husband was to me such an interesting and wholly enigmatic being, that it seemed to me as though I should find it easier to understand him if I noted down his every thought and expression.” -Mr X’s second wife
(My response to Mrs. X’s observation is: aren’t they all? But who would have time or energy to write it all down–and then try to figure it out?)

Box of Books blogger, Ella, says this author’s name should be used as a noun meaning “something or someone who excites feelings of deep sadness”. She adds, “You’d think . . . our gloomy friend would be at least semi-popular.”

Finally, I never have been able to decide how to spell his name. So who is it? And what about you? Have you read his novels? What did you think? Do you find him gloomy and sad or interesting and enigmatic–or all of the preceeding? And how do you spell his name?

Augustus Montague Toplady, b. 1740. Toplady’s most famous hymn is Rock of Ages, Cleft For Me, but this one, A Debtor To Mercy Alone, is one we sing in my church frequently:

A debtor to mercy alone, of covenant mercy I sing;
Nor fear, with Thy righteousness on, my person and off’ring to bring.
The terrors of law and of God with me can have nothing to do;
My Savior’s obedience and blood hide all my transgressions from view.

The work which His goodness began, the arm of His strength will complete;
His promise is Yea and Amen, and never was forfeited yet.
Things future, nor things that are now, nor all things below or above,
Can make Him His purpose forgo, or sever my soul from His love.

My name from the palms of His hands eternity will not erase;
Impressed on His heart it remains, in marks of indelible grace.
Yes, I to the end shall endure, as sure as the earnest is giv’n;
More happy, but not more secure, the glorified spirits in Heav’n.

Toplady was a great opponent of the Wesleys, especially John Wesley, and he wrote many pamphlets and sermons in opposition to what he termed John Wesley’s “pernicious doctrines,” namely Arminianism. As Toplady was dying at age thirty-eight, he heard of rumors to the effect that he was sorry for the things he had said of John Wesley and wanted to apologize and beg Wesley’s forgiveness. Toplady got up almost literally from his deathbed in order to dispell those rumors and reaffirm his belief in Calvinism and his opposition to the Arminianism of John Wesley.

“It having been industriously circulated by some malicious and unprincipled persons that during my present long and severe illness I expressed a strong desire of seeing Mr. John Wesley before I die, and revoking some particulars relative to him which occur in my writings,- Now I do publicly and most solemnly aver That I have not nor ever had any such intention or desire; and that I most sincerely hope my last hours will be much better employed than in communing with such a man. So certain and satisfied am I of the truth of all that I have ever written, that were I now sitting up in my dying bed with a pen and ink in my hand, and all the religious and controversial writings I ever published, especially those relating to Mr. John Wesley and the Arminian controversy, whether respecting fact or doctrine, could be at once displayed to my view, I should not strike out a single line relative to him or them.”

We sing the hymn above by Toplady and this one by Charles Wesley both at my church. Are the three of them, John, Charles, and Augustus, in heaven amused at the proximity of their two hymns–which seem to my untutored brain to have much the same theme and theology?

Arise my soul, arise; shake off thy guilty fears;
The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears:
Before the throne my surety stands,
Before the throne my surety stands,
My name is written on His hands.

He ever lives above, for me to intercede;
His all redeeming love, His precious blood, to plead:
His blood atoned for all our race,
His blood atoned for all our race,
And sprinkles now the throne of grace.

Five bleeding wounds He bears; received on Calvary;
They pour effectual prayers; they strongly plead for me:
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Nor let that ransomed sinner die!”

The Father hears Him pray, His dear anointed One;
He cannot turn away, the presence of His Son;
His Spirit answers to the blood,
His Spirit answers to the blood,
And tells me I am born of God.

My God is reconciled; His pardoning voice I hear;
He owns me for His child; I can no longer fear:
With confidence I now draw nigh,
With confidence I now draw nigh,
And “Father, Abba, Father,” cry.

J.C. Ryle on Augustus Toplady
Toplady’s Letter to John Wesley

So today I’m thanking God for John Wesley, his brother Charles, and for Augustus Toplady, and I’m asking Him to have mercy on us all–Arminians, Calvinists, and Fence-Sitters, like me.

1. She was born in Manchester, England in 1849, but after the death of her father, her family moved to Tennessee. She began writing short stories to help support her family, and then she began writing full length romanic novels. Some of these were quite successful, but she is remembered nowadays for her children’s fiction, three books in particular: Little Lord Fauntleroy, Sara Crewe(A Little Princess), and The Secret Garden. My favorite of the three is The Secret Garden, although it is spurned by some because it includes elements of the author’s faith in spiritualism. I just skip over the part where the children are chanting to “the spirits” and concentrate on the captivating idea of a secret garden where wounds both of the spirit and of the body can be healed. Wouldn’t everybody love to have a secret garden?
2. Carlo Lorenzini (b. 1826, d. 1890) was the real name of a Florentine journalist who wrote the fantasy story of a wooden puppet who, after many misadventures, finally became a real boy. Do you know the author’s pen name and the name of his famous book?
3. This science fiction author was born in 1933. She wrote two YA novels about a girl who was training to observe cultures on other planets as they evolved into advanced cultures capable of joining the World Federation of Planets (or some such name). The rule (prime directive) is that observers are not allowed to interfere in the evolution of the culture being studied unless the planet is in danger of being destroyed or destroying itself. Of course, Elana, the young observer-in training, finds herself in a situation that calls for her to violate her oath and interfere in a way that may have unexpected and tragic consequences.
These two books were favorites of mine in junior high, and I still think they’re not bad, although a little dated. The evolution of cultures theme doesn’t really ring true to me, but the idea of having to make a choice that may be wrong either way (damned if you do, and damned if you don’t) does make both books thought provoking.

Today is the 96th birthday of this author of children’s books, four children’s books to be exact, each one a classic. We just finished reading out loud in our homeschool two of Speare’s books, The Sign of the Beaver and The Witch of Blackbird Pond, a Newbery Award winner. Calico Captive was her first book about sisters who were captured by Indians, and she also won the Newbery Medal for The Bronze Bow, a beautiful book about forgiveness and healing set in Palestine in the time of Jesus. My nine-year old loved The Witch of Blackbird Pond, especially because she had figured out exactly who was going to marry whom about halfway through the book. (It’s a chick thing!) I think Karate Kid enjoyed Sign of the Beaver more since it was about manly man stuff like hunting and trapping and making your own bow and arrows and Indians and stuff like that. When I read Sign of the Beaver to my older children several years ago, they always asked me to read just one more chapter. I finally answered them, “I’ll read only one more chapter. But at the end of that chapter, even if Attean is hanging off the edge of a cliff by his fingernails, we’re stopping for today.” So now it’s a common phrase around our house, “We’re quitting here—even if Attean is hanging off the edge of the cliff by his fingernails!”