Eighteen of the twenty-five pieces C.S. Lewis quietly published in Punch, gathered over years of searching. The hunt for the last seven is yours to finish.
Between 1946 and 1958, readers of Punch, Britain’s famous weekly of satire, cartoons, and comic verse, kept coming across clever, learned, oddly beautiful poems signed with just two initials: N.W. Almost none of them knew they were reading the author of Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters.
The secret behind “N.W.”
The initials stand for Nat Whilk, a modernized form of the Old English nāt-hwylc, meaning roughly “someone” or “I know not who.” In other words, “Anonymous.” It was a scholar’s joke. Lewis taught Old English at Oxford, and he used the name for years. A decade later, when he published A Grief Observed after Joy’s death, he hid behind a version of it again: N.W. Clerk.
Lewis kept the Punch poems close to his chest. In 1947 he let his oldest friend, Arthur Greeves, in on it, admitting that the poems signed “N.W.” were his, and asking him to keep it a secret.
Why Punch?
- A protest against modern poetry. Lewis had little patience for the difficult verse of Eliot, Auden, and their circle. He felt that real poetry, with rhyme, meter, and music, now survived mainly in light verse that wasn’t trying too hard to be serious. Punch was where that kind of poetry still had a home.
- The Inklings heard them first. “Donkeys’ Delight” was read aloud to the Inklings on October 23, 1947, just two weeks before it appeared in print.
- Narnia in Punch. “Narnian Suite” ran in November 1953, while the Chronicles were still coming out. And “Impenitence” (July 1953) is Lewis’s cheerful refusal to apologize for loving stories about talking animals.
- His final word to Punch was not a poem but an essay, “Revival or Decay,” published in 1958.
What’s in the collection
Some of these are single issues, bought one at a time. Others came in bound or boxed runs of an entire year of Punch, which I bought just to get the issue I needed. Either way, every piece listed below is here.
In the collection (18 of 25):
| # | Title | Issue date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Birth of Language | 9 January 1946 |
| 2 | On Being Human | 8 May 1946 |
| 3 | Solomon | 14 August 1946 |
| 4 | The True Nature of Gnomes | 16 October 1946 |
| 6 | Young King Cole (Dangerous Oversight) | 21 May 1947 |
| 8 | Donkeys’ Delight | 5 November 1947 |
| 9 | The Last of the Wine (The End of the Wine) | 3 December 1947 |
| 10 | Vitrea Circe | 23 June 1948 |
| 11 | The Late Passenger (The Sailing of the Ark) | 11 August 1948 |
| 13 | The Turn of the Tide | 3 November 1948 |
| 15 | The Adam at Night | 11 May 1949 |
| 16 | The Magician and the Dryad | 20 July 1949 |
| 17 | The Day with a White Mark | 17 August 1949 |
| 18 | The Adam Unparadised (A Footnote to Pre-History) | 14 September 1949 |
| 19 | As One Oldster to Another | 15 March 1950 |
| 21 | The Country of the Blind | 12 September 1951 |
| 22 | Impenitence | July 1953 |
| 23 | Narnian Suite | 4 November 1953 |
The quest you inherit
These are the pieces still out there, waiting to be found. Whoever takes this collection gets the fun of finishing the set.
| # | Title | Issue date |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Pan’s Purge | 15 January 1947 |
| 7 | Le Roi S’Amuse | 1 October 1947 |
| 12 | The Landing | 15 September 1948 |
| 14 | The Prodigality of Firdausi | 1 December 1948 |
| 20 | Ballade of Dead Gentlemen | 28 March 1951 |
| 24 | A Confession (Spartan Nactus) | 1 December 1954 |
| 25 | Revival or Decay (essay) | 9 July 1958 |
Bonus: an antique decorative Punch cover
Also included is an antique metallic decorative Punch cover. It’s a fitting piece of the magazine’s history and makes a striking display alongside the issues, a nod to the very publication where Lewis hid in plain sight.
Why I’m sharing it
I’ve spent years researching and tracking these down, issue by issue, and this collection has been a real treasure. Now I’d love for it to go to someone who will carry on the search and enjoy the story behind it as much as I have. It would be a centerpiece for any collection of Lewis, the Inklings, or 20th-century British literature.
- 18 of the 25 C.S. Lewis Punch pieces, in single issues and full-year runs
- Antique metallic decorative Punch cover included
- Sold together as one lot
- Free shipping within the U.S.
How to bid
This collection will be sold as a single lot by silent bid.
- Email your bid to daniel@theolatte.com with the subject line “Bid: Signed C.S. Lewis Letter.”
- Include your name, your bid in U.S. dollars, and the best way to reach you.
- If your bid is close to what I’m looking for, I’ll follow up with you personally.
- You can view my ebay seller ratings and my etsy shop ratings/reviews to check on my standard of business. I’ve got good reviews and I want to make sure you are pleased.
- If your bid is accepted, you’ll send your payment through Venmo.
- If requested, and you send an acceptable bid, I can do a video call for you to better inspect your item before sending payment.
- After I receive your payment, I will send the item first class with sufficient insurance to cover the value and send you the tracking number.
Please bid responsibly. I won’t be haggling much over price, so send your best offer the first time. The bid you send is the one I’ll consider. If it is close, I’ll either send a notice of acceptance with directions for next steps, or a counter offer. If you don’t hear back within a few days, feel free to send a higher bid.
