The Wade Center serves primarily as a research center, attracting scholars from around the world. It holds at least one copy of every book written by the Wade authors, plus books, articles, and other materials about the various writers. It holds the world's fullest collection of the writings of Dorothy L. Sayers, including 30,000 pages of letters and documents both published and unpublished. For some of the Wade authors, collections of family documents are also available.
The center's museum features memorabilia and changing displays about the authors from its collection of books, letters, manuscripts, and artifacts.
History and organization
The center was founded in 1965 by Clyde S. Kilby. In 2001 a new building was completed at the edge of the Wheaton College campus to house the Wade Center, with an expanded reading room, classroom space, and an enlarged exhibits area. C. S. Lewis's dining-room table, which used to serve as desk space for visiting researchers, has been moved into the exhibits area near the Wade's own Lewis wardrobe.
The Wade Center's second director, after Kilby, was Lyle W. Dorsett, who headed the center from 1983 until 1990.[1] From 1994 until 2013, the small staff was headed by director Christopher W. Mitchell (author of Through the Wardrobe and into the Mind of C. S. Lewis, 2009), until his departure to teach at Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University.[2] From 2013 until 2018, Associate Director Marjorie Lamp Mead acted as interim director of the Wade Center. She is the author of A Reader's Guide Through the Wardrobe: Exploring C. S. Lewis's Classic Story, and of A Reader's Guide To Caspian: a journey into C. S. Lewis's Narnia.[3] Since July 2018, the Wade Center has been headed by co-directors David Downing and Crystal Downing.[4] David C. Downing earned his PhD from UCLA and is the author of four scholarly books on C.S. Lewis: Planets in Peril, The Most Reluctant Convert, Into the Wardrobe, and Into the Region of Awe, as well as extensive other writings on Lewis.[5] Crystal Downing has written two books on Dorothy Sayers, Writing Performances: The Stages of Dorothy L. Sayers, which was granted the Barbara Reynolds Award for best Sayers scholarship in 2009 by the Dorothy L. Sayers Society, and Subversive: Christ, Culture and the Shocking Dorothy L. Sayers along with nearly 100 other scholarly essays.[6]
The center hosts special events related to its authors: meetings of scholarly societies, book discussions and classes, film-release celebrations, etc.
Publications
The Wade Center also publishes the journal VII: Journal of the Marion E. Wade Center,[7] highlighting works by and about the Wade authors.
Clive Staples Lewis, FBA was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University and Cambridge University. He is best known as the author of The Chronicles of Narnia, but he is also noted for his other works of fiction, such as The Screwtape Letters and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, including Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.
The Inklings were an informal literary discussion group associated with J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis at the University of Oxford for nearly two decades between the early 1930s and late 1949. The Inklings were literary enthusiasts who praised the value of narrative in fiction and encouraged the writing of fantasy. The best-known, apart from Tolkien and Lewis, were Charles Williams, and Owen Barfield.
The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven high fantasy novels by British author C. S. Lewis. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes and originally published between 1950 and 1956, The Chronicles of Narnia has been adapted for radio, television, the stage, film and video games. The series is set in the fictional realm of Narnia, a fantasy world of magic, mythical beasts and talking animals. It narrates the adventures of various children who play central roles in the unfolding history of the Narnian world. Except in The Horse and His Boy, the protagonists are all children from the real world who are magically transported to Narnia, where they are sometimes called upon by the lion Aslan to protect Narnia from evil. The books span the entire history of Narnia, from its creation in The Magician's Nephew to its eventual destruction in The Last Battle.
Warren Hamilton Lewis was an Irish historian and officer in the British Army, best known as the elder brother of writer and professor C. S. Lewis. Warren Lewis was a supply officer with the Royal Army Service Corps of the British Army during and after the First World War. After retiring in 1932 to live with his brother in Oxford, he was one of the founding members of the Inklings, an informal Oxford literary society. He wrote on French history, and served as his brother's secretary for the later years of C. S. Lewis's life.
Narnia is a fantasy world created by C. S. Lewis as the primary location for his series of seven fantasy novels for children, The Chronicles of Narnia. The world is named after the country of Narnia, where much of the Chronicles takes place.
Wheaton College is a private Evangelical Christian liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois. It was founded by evangelical abolitionists in 1860. Wheaton College was a stop on the Underground Railroad and graduated one of Illinois' first black college graduates.
Helen Joy Davidman was an American poet and writer. Often referred to as a child prodigy, she earned a master's degree from Columbia University in English literature at age twenty in 1935. For her book of poems, Letter to a Comrade, she won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition in 1938 and the Russell Loines Award for Poetry in 1939. She was the author of several books, including two novels.
Aiden Wilson Tozer was an American Christian pastor, author, magazine editor, and spiritual mentor. For his accomplishments, he received honorary doctorates from Wheaton and Houghton colleges.
Walter McGehee Hooper was an American writer and literary advisor of the estate of C.S. Lewis. He was a literary trustee for Owen Barfield from December 1997 to October 2006.
Dorothy Pulis Lathrop was an American writer and illustrator of children's books.
Michael D. C. Drout is an American Professor of English and Director of the Center for the Study of the Medieval at Wheaton College. He is an author and editor specializing in Anglo-Saxon and medieval literature, science fiction and fantasy, especially the works of J. R. R. Tolkien and Ursula K. Le Guin.
Diana Pavlac Glyer is an American author, speaker and teacher whose work centers on C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien and the Inklings. She teaches in the Honors College at Azusa Pacific University in California.
Joel D. Heck is a retired pastor and professor, formerly Executive Editor of Concordia University Press. He is the author or editor of sixteen books, most recently publishing No Ordinary People: Twenty-One Friendships of C. S. Lewis. He currently serves part-time as an assisting pastor at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Austin, Texas.
Dorothy Leigh Sayers was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages.
Rolland Hein was an American academic of English literature. He was professor emeritus of English at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.
This is a list of writings by C. S. Lewis.
Clyde Samuel Kilby was an American writer and English professor, best known for his scholarship on the Inklings, especially J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. A professor at Wheaton College (Illinois) for most of his life, Kilby founded the Marion E. Wade Center there, making it a center for the study of the Inklings, their friends, and their influences.
James Lyle Enyeart is an American photographer, scholar and museum director.
The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels for children written by C. S. Lewis. It is considered a classic of children's literature and is the author's best-known work, having sold over 100 million copies in 47 languages. In addition to numerous traditional Christian themes, the series borrows characters and ideas from Greek and Roman mythology, and from British and Irish folklore.
Charles A. Huttar is an emeritus professor of English at Hope College, known for his work on the Inklings including J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, and Charles Williams. He has twice won the Mythopoeic Society's Scholarship Award.
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