Notable and Quotable–Michael Ward on C.S. Lewis

A few months before C.”ŠS. Lewis died in 1963, he predicted to Walter Hooper, a young American friend, that sales of his books would decline rapidly after his death. Hooper countered: “No, they won’t. And you know why? Your books are too good, and people are not that stupid.”

Lewis was wrong. Hooper, who became Lewis’s biographer and editor, was right. In the 50 years since Lewis died ”” at the same hour that John F. Kennedy was assassinated ”” sales of his books have not only not declined, they have rocketed.

The Chronicles of Narnia sell about three million copies annually worldwide in more than 40 languages.

–From this past Saturday’s London Times