Description
Lewis, C.S., The Pilgrim’s Regress. An Allegorical Apology for Christianity Reason and Romanticism by C.S. Lewis. New York: Sheed & Ward, Inc. 1944. 7 ½ in. 255 numbered pages, with the poem, Regress, on the verso of p. 255. Pictorial endpapers of Mappa Mundi with a legend of the Shires’ allegorical names signed with the initials “R.L.K.” First published in 1933 by Dent, and first published in the United States in 1935 by Sheed & Ward, this wartime edition of 1944 has a yellow dust wrapper without any image, only text. Bound in heavy dark blue textured cloth with tamped lettering on the spine, this copy’s dust wrapper is chipped at the head and worn at the side panel folds. The original price of $4.50 has not been clipped.
From the front side panel fold, a description of Lewis’ allegorical fiction: “Herein is a true relation of the Adventures of John Mansoul and his companion Vertue in their wanderings from Puritania, through the cities of Claptrap, Thrill, Ignorance, Luxuria and Superbia: and of their Converse with Mr. Enlightenment, and his son Sigismund Enlightenment: and of how Mr. Halfways was privy to certain Ancient Knowledge which was held of little account by his daughter, Media Halfways and her half-brother, the Machine Worshipper, Gus Halfways.” The back panel is an advertisement for Caryll Houselander’s This War is the Passion. On the back side panel is an advertisement for Maisie Ward’s Gilbert Keith Chesterton. The condition of the book is fine, a bright and tight copy, surprising given wartime economy standards.
