The Major and the Missionary
The Letters of Warren Hamilton Lewis and Blanche Biggs
Edited by Diana Pavlac Glyer
Published by Rabbit Room Press, 2023

“Dear Major Lewis,
I hope that you have the patience in answering letters from strangers that your brother had. This letter is written from curiosity, but there is some sort of purpose behind it.”
—Blanche Biggs, The Major and the Missionary

What insights might be discovered in a stack of personal letters exchanged between a retired army major in Oxford, England, and a medical missionary who dedicated her life to the people of Papua New Guinea? Author Diana Pavlac Glyer discovered the complete set of correspondence, written over a period of 10 years, between Warren Hamilton Lewis, brother of C. S. Lewis, and Dr. Blanche Biggs, missionary to Papua New Guinea at the Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College, Illinois. Thankfully, Glyer began researching the history of the complete letter collection dated from 1968-1978, publishing them in her book, The Major and the Missionary. She discovered revealing primary source material introducing the reader to C.S. Lewis’s lesser known brother, Warren, and Miss Biggs. What a delight to learn about the true lives of two people who nurtured a long distance friendship!

I have kept nearly every letter I have ever received, even some that I wrote, because they feel like an anchor to my personal story. There is something so meaningful and intimate about re-reading words from a particular time to a particular person. Similarly, Blanche kept decades of her notes and treasured correspondence from years of her missionary experience. After reading Warren’s edited collection of his brother’s letters, Blanche took a chance and wrote to him for his thoughts on keeping her own. The delight in reading through this pen pal friendship is discovering the kindness, honesty, and generosity that developed between Warren and Blanche.

Many people are familiar with C.S. Lewis and his extensive published work, including the seven books in the Narnia series, Mere Christianity, The Ransom Trilogy, and many lectures and essays. Few people know of his brother Warren, affectionately known as Warnie, which is why this book is so important. Reading his letters to Blanche pulls back the curtain on a man who was delightfully complex with strong opinions, yet willing to exchange viewpoints on big issues.

Their long distance friendship begins with a letter from Blanche to Warren. She states that his work in organizing his brother’s letters inspired her to consider what she should do with her own personal collection of letters she had kept. Blanche admits to being “a born hoarder of letters and records, always with the feeling that they may be needed some day.”1 She estimated that she had a “20-year collection stowed away and always have the intention at the back of my mind to have a sorting and burning campaign.”2 Major Lewis responded openly to her inquiries, advising her to “neither to burn it or hand it over to anyone else . . . have a go at making a book out of it yourself.”3 He shared anecdotes about his family and the work he did on organizing his brother’s hundreds of letters.

Blanche was familiar with books by C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman, his wife, and the Inklings as well, providing common literary ground between the two. Her replies to Warren are straightforward and honest. After receiving a copy of Letters to an American Lady, she writes, “My dear Major Lewis, I feel very much at home with the Lewis family just now . . . ,”4 marveling that her letter writing challenges were a common struggle shared with Warren’s brother. Along with letters, they occasionally exchanged small gifts and books and each was loyal to respond quickly (the letters are listed by date and numbered in the book). During the mid-1970s, Warren’s health gradually declined, affecting the timeliness of his responses, so later letters were written by Warren’s dear friend, Len Miller.

The fun of reading the letter exchange is that you are offered a unique view into this growing friendship. These are lively conversations, with candid opinions offered in a hospitable way. One of the standout qualities embedded in each letter was the spirit of hospitality towards each other. Blanche and Warren exemplified the gift of civil discourse, even when they disagreed on many ideas: church affiliation (although both were Anglican) and ecumenicalism, matters of Christian faith and sin, and even music during church services. Regarding the proposed reunification of the Church of England and the Methodist church in the 1960s, Warren writes, “. . . the chief bone of contention is the proposed amalgamation of the Church of England with the Methodists — to which I’m violently opposed.”5 6 In her next letter, Blanche responds, “It is not of course a matter of watering down belief, but of consulting together, working together and even of making friendships on a personal basis.”7 They also expressed their differences on controversial subjects in the church like sexual standards, resulting in a lively disagreement! Responding to a particular difficulty at Blanche’s hospital, Warren writes, “I see of course that your action was the only one you could possibly have taken but speaking generally I’ve never been able to summon any great degree of moral indignation over sexual offences — of course provided that they do not entail disaster.”8 She responds, “You, like your brother, seem to sit light to sexual offences, and I think you may be right that women view it somewhat differently from men.”9 I found this debate in their letters particularly fascinating! Although Warren and Blanche disagreed on several points, they communicated with a spirit of curiosity and respect, which is a hallmark of a lasting friendship.

Personal letters present insights overlooked in casual conversation or scholarly research. We easily imagine that the brother of C.S. Lewis would have an understanding and appreciation for scripture, merely because of the company he kept. I naturally assumed that Warren Lewis’s knowledge far exceeded my own, so when I read his comment “. . . only a scholar can appreciate the meaning of large sections of the A.V. [authorized version]. Of the Epistles my brother used to say that he wished God, in entrusting Paul with His message, had also seen fit to give him the capacity of orderly arrangement of his ideas.”10 Paul’s writing has always challenged me, so I felt an immediate kinship with the Lewis brothers.

Reading this correspondence feels like stepping into a time machine. Most of us know basic history points in an objective way; for instance, fuel shortages, wars, and the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon, and political scandals in the United States. But to actually read the perspectives of Warren and Blanche as they lived in that moment is fascinating! Warren describes the political and religious riots in Northern Ireland in 1969, noting that “Yes, my poor Ulster is passing through a bad patch, but I’ve seen many such before. The tragedy is that Protestant and Catholic are, one can say, born hating each other.”11 Blanche notes her fears of violence for travelers there, “Poor Ireland; every news session seems to have more news of trouble there: as you say, it does not bear thinking about; and Vietnam is much, much worse.”12 But Warren assures her “Like so many people you have a distorted view of the Ireland of to-day; provided you don’t go within ten miles of the Ulster border, you are as safe or safer over there than you are in Birmingham or Liverpool.”13 As a citizen Warren’s words add a third dimension to a real moment in history.

They both speak of power supply shortages — the lack of electricity and fuel in Oxford and broken generators in Papua — and England’s perpetual workmen’s strikes. Blanche describes Papua New Guinea as a newly developing area of the world. Lewis writes, “I’m a fairly constant reader of travel and similar books, and cannot recollect having come across anything about Papua,” to which she writes back with a list of books about the history of the island to clear any misconceptions he may have.14 They educated each other with truth and perspective.

One of the most striking takeaways from the book is that the world has always and will continue to suffer the same problems throughout history. Given a bigger picture view, Blanche and Warren lived during a time of social chaos, but we conclude from their conversations that “there is nothing new under the sun.”15 Society forgets that there will be “wars and rumors of wars,” but what is lasting and true, even in dark and difficult days, is friendship.16

If you are a bibliophile who digs into every footnote for additional study, Glyer records each book mentioned by Lewis and Biggs in their letters. I found myself circling the titles in the text and jotting them down in my “Need to Read” list. Not only are there dozens of book titles, but also cited references ranging from historical record, little-known autobiographical accounts, church history, and significant details on the current events of the day. The helpful bibliography provides additional titles that expand on the lives and literary work of Warren, who was a prolific writer, and Blanche, who eventually wrote her autobiography detailing her years of missionary work in Papua New Guinea.

The Major and the Missionary is a brilliant and uniquely inspiring book for many reasons. The Forward, Introduction, and Afterword reveal a wealth of background information on Warren and Blanche, which was incredibly helpful in understanding the tone of their correspondence, adding depth and meaning. Little has been written about Major Warren Lewis, but his letters reveal his convictions, Christian faith, humility, and encouraging spirit. The book also illuminates his scholarship as well, which is long overdue. Blanche’s letters describe the real life experiences and challenges of a dedicated missionary working in a far off country. We are reminded of a time when people exchanged letters, written with fountain pen or composed on an old Royal brand typewriter, taking time to weigh their words while composing. In contrast to email, letters remain with us, touchstones of time gone by that can be read and enjoyed again, then shared with future generations. (I am inspired to keep my Parker fountain pen and stationery close at hand to participate in this vanishing tradition.) We can be grateful that Blanche did not destroy her letters compiled in this book. They compose a “story worth telling.”17

Notes:

1 Diana Pavlac Glyer, The Major and the Missionary (Nashville: Rabbit Room Press, 2023), 2.

2 Ibid., 2.

3 Ibid., 6.

4 Ibid., 210.

5 Ibid., footnote, 13.

6 Ibid., 13.

7 Ibid., 17.

8 Ibid., 70.

9 Ibid., 76.

10 Ibid., 141.

11 Ibid., 38.

12 Ibid., 236-237.

13 Ibid., 246.

14 Ibid., 13.

15 Ecclesiastes 1:9 (ESV).

16 Matthew 24:6.

17 Glyer, xxx.