In the last few years, we’ve had a lot of lost manuscripts begin to surface from the likes of C.S. Lewis’ friend J.R.R. Tolkien.  From The Children of Hurin to The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, the wealth of literature from Tolkien has been expanded greatly, and it’s about time that something new from Lewis has been discovered.  Communications Professor Steven Beebe of Texas State discovered a lost manuscript fragment in Oxford University’s Bodleian Library.

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Andrew Skilleter is the artist behind the covers of the BBC radio editions of The Chronicles of Narnia.  He asked me to mention that he’s made available, by popular demand, a limited run of 250 of each title as special prints of his artwork.  If you missed it, we posted a story about the exhibition that is still going on, along with some of the art work, here: BBC Narnia Cover Art Exhibition UK.  The art is available to purchase at the artist’s website, here: Andrew Skelleter’s Narnia BBC Paintings.
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There’s an artist that has become quite well known for his redesigns of book covers.  Most notibly, the Harry Potter series.  Unfortunately it doesn’t appear that they’ll ever see publication, but that doesn’t mean we cannot hope that some of his designs will one day see print.  I had been watching his blog to see if he was ever going to do his take on The Chronicles of Narnia books.  Well, last weekend he posted them.  I’ve included a glimpse of one of the covers, as it is my favorite book in the series: The Last Battle.  You can see his art work on his blog (Narnia Redesign) or at his flickr account.

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This week’s mailbag features a topic that is very interesting to me: that of the relationship of J.R.R. Tolkien and his writing to C.S. Lewis and his.  Other topics include what Anna Popplewell and William Moseley are up to next, and Andrew Adamson’s past in Papua New Guinea.  I’ll see if I have the time to reach back into the mailbag archives after the five letters that I received this week.  Be sure to look through the comments from last week’s mailbag for some fascinating follow-up information as well!  Let’s get started!

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For this week’s Mailbag, I looked in my inbox and realized a couple of things: first, there was only one e-mail for this week’s mailbag.  I could take this to mean that it’s not a good feature to bring back, but that would be ridiculous.  I enjoy the chance to answer e-mails and also to put my own voice into the site just a little bit.

On a related note, I share Andrew Adamson’s birthday.  Who knew?  Andrew, if you’re reading this, that must be the reason we have similar creative minds.

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Amazon.com has today announced the release of their new edition of Kindle. With that announcement comes new additions to the library of books available for Kindle, including many works written by C.S. Lewis.

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We’ve just received the sad news that the original illustrator of The Chronicles of Narnia has just passed away:

Wayne Hammond reports the death of Baynes at her home in Surrey. Pauline Baynes was the original illustrator of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series, as well as of Tolkien’s Farmer Giles of Ham (1948), The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book (1962), and Smith of Wootton Major (1967).

Read more .. Wikipedia Entry

Narnia expert Brian Sibley has written a blog entry about Pauline Baynes that you can read here:

Brian Sibley’s Blog on Pauline Baynes: Queen of Narnia and Middle-Earth

And note that obituaries will be appearing in The Times, The Telegraph, The Independent and The Guardian later in the week.

Kind regards,

Brian Sibley

Update 2:

Rem, from the Philippine Order of Narnians, sent us an update with links to the articles posted athe both the Independent and the Guardian:

I thought you’d like to know that, as Mr Sibley said they would, Pauline Baynes’ obituaries have already shown up at the Independent and the Guardian.

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The fantasy novel series from C. S. Lewis has sold over 100 million copies. And after the success of the first movie, audiences are ready for the sequel, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

We’re celebrating the release of the movie with a quiz and exclusive interviews with the cast. You could win the ultimate Narnia prize package, which includes a signed book from the cast, posters, action figures and more!

Put your Narnia skills to the test with our 50-question quiz, written by NarniaFans.com — the ultimate resource for everything Narnia.

Once you’ve mastered the quiz, enter for your chance to win an ultimate prize package from THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN and check out their exclusive interviews of the cast!

Parade.com Narnia Quiz

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At HarperCollins Childrens, they’ve added a new video feature and behind the scenes on the making of the Pop-up book. Here’s what you’ll find there:

Robert Sabuda invited us to visit his New York City studio for a behind-the-scenes look at his creative process. He talked with the book’s editor, Katherine Tegen, about his inspiration for the magic that springs off the pages of The Chronicles of Narnia Pop-up.

HarperCollins Childrens

Take a look at what really goes into designing the complex mechanics of a pop-up book. Robert Sabuda’s production sketches show the intricate details and special effects found in each spread of these hand-assembled books.

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The countdown to Walt Disney Pictures’ and Walden Media’s film ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ begins today with the release of THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA MOVIE TIE-IN EDITION. For the first time, readers can experience Narnia in a collectible edition featuring an 8-page, fold-out insert based on C. S. Lewis’s own timeline conceived for Narnia. The stunning cover artwork from ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ movie introduces a dashing new hero-actor Ben Barnes (’Stardust’) as Prince Caspian.

The full-color timeline, recreated from C. S. Lewis’s original and paired with Pauline Baynes’ classic full color illustrations for the first time, provides the key to the passage of time in Narnia and Earth by laying the two worlds side by side. Never before has C. S. Lewis’s timeline been included in a complete edition of all seven books of Narnia. Readers can now enjoy the beloved stories and use the timeline as a guide to orient themselves within the epic work.

This Spring the timeline will be expanded into NARNIA CHRONOLOGY: From the Archives of the Last King (April 1, 2008; $19.99), an interactive version of The Chronicles of Narnia. NARNIA CHRONOLOGY will include pop-ups, gatefolds, pull tabs and many other exciting features to tell the stories in a sweeping linear format as C. S. Lewis imagined it.

On May 16, 2008, audiences will be enthralled by the film, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.’ With THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA MOVIE TIE-IN EDITION and NARNIA CHRONOLOGY, readers will have the chance to experience Aslan’s world first, in their own imagination.

Clive Staples Lewis, known as Jack to his friends, was born in 1898. Lewis and his good friend J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, were part of the Inklings, an informal writers’ club that met at a local pub to discuss story ideas. Lewis’s fascination with fairy tales, myths, and ancient legends, coupled with inspiration drawn from his childhood, led him to write The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, one of the best-loved books of all time. Six further books followed to become the immensely popular The Chronicles of Narnia. The final title in the series, The Last Battle, was awarded the Carnegie Medal, one of the highest marks of excellence in children’s literature.

HarperCollins Children’s Books is one of the leading publishers of children’s books. Respected worldwide for its tradition of publishing quality, award-winning books for young readers, HarperCollins is home to many timeless treasures-Charlotte’s Web, The Chronicles of Narnia, Goodnight Moon, Where the Sidewalk Ends and Where the Wild Things Are; and popular new classics-A Series of Unfortunate Events, Warriors and Fancy Nancy. HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers, one of the leading English language publishers in the world and a subsidiary of News Corporation . Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australasia. You can visit HarperCollins Children’s Books at www.harpercollinschildrens.com and HarperCollins Publishers at www.harpercollins.com.

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA MOVIE TIE-IN EDITION
Written by C. S. Lewis
Illustrated by Pauline Baynes
HarperEntertainment
Paperback / Ages: 10 and up / January 8, 2008 / ISBN: 978-0-06-123105-6 /
$21.99 / 6 x 9 /
767 pages with b & w illustrations and a full-color 8-page foldout

NARNIA CHRONOLOGY
From the Archives of the Last King
Based on the books by C. S. Lewis
Including full color illustrations by Pauline Baynes
HarperCollins Children’s Books
Paperback/ Ages: 8 and up / April 1, 2008 / ISBN: 978-0-06-124005-8 /
$19.99 / 10 1/4 x 11 3/4 /
32 full-color pages

www.harpercollinschildrens.com

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