Walter Hooper facts for kids
Walter McGehee Hooper (March 27, 1931 – December 7, 2020) 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.
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Life
Hooper was born in Reidsville, North Carolina, United States. He earned an M.A. in education in 1958 from the University of North Carolina and was an instructor in English at the University of Kentucky in the early 1960s. He served briefly in 1963 as C.S. Lewis's private secretary when Lewis was in declining health. He devoted himself to Lewis's memory after his death in November 1963, eventually taking up residence in Oxford, England, where he lived until his death.
Hooper became a C.S. Lewis papers custodian, advocate, and editor of his works. The Lewis papers, as researched by Hooper, contain primary data on the friendship between Lewis and his fellow Oxford don J.R.R. Tolkien.
Hooper also studied for the Anglican ministry at St Stephen's House, Oxford and was ordained deacon in 1964 and priest in 1965. He was Chaplain of Wadham College, Oxford 1965-67 and Assistant Chaplain of Jesus College, Oxford 1967-70. He converted to the Catholic Church in 1988, and was a daily communicant at the Oxford Oratory. He described meeting Pope John Paul II in 1984, when still an Anglican, as "When the pope walked into the room it was as if Aslan himself had arrived."
Aged 89, Hooper died from complications of COVID-19 on 7 December 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in England.
Literary work
Hooper's works include:
- C.S. Lewis: A Biography (co-authored with Roger Lancelyn Green) (1974)
- Study guide to The Screwtape Letters with Owen Barfield (1976)
- Past Watchful Dragons: The Narnian Chronicles of C.S. Lewis (1979)
- With Anthony Marchington Through Joy and Beyond: The Life of C.S. Lewis (1979)
- The Chronicles of Narnia Soundbook (TLWW, TVOTDT, PC, TSC) (abridged) with program booklet by Walter Hooper (1980)
- Through Joy and Beyond: A Pictorial Biography of C.S. Lewis (1982)
- C.S. Lewis: A Companion and Guide (1996)
- C.S. Lewis: A Complete Guide to His Life and Works (1998)
In addition, Hooper edited or wrote introductions for approximately 30 books of Lewisian manuscripts and scholarship. Several of these books contain previously unknown or little-known works by Lewis.
Honors
In 1972 Hooper was awarded the second annual Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies, for scholarly contribution to the criticism and appreciation of the epic fantasy literature generated by the Inklings School, by the Mythopoeic Society.
Related works
- Diana Pavlac Glyer The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community. Kent State University Press. Kent Ohio. 2007. ISBN: 978-0-87338-890-0
See also
In Spanish: Walter Hooper para niños
