Apologetic and Intellectual Works. Ten-Volume Collection of First Editions

LEWIS, C. S. The Problem of Pain. London: Geoffrey Bles: The Centenary Press, 1940.
LEWIS, C. S. The Screwtape Letters. London: Geoffrey Bles, 1942.
LEWIS, C. S. A Preface to Paradise Lost. London: Oxford University Press, 1942.
LEWIS, C. S. Broadcast Talks. London: Geoffrey Bles: The Centenary Press, 1942.
LEWIS, C. S. Christian Behaviour. London: Geoffrey Bles: The Centenary Press, 1943.
LEWIS, C. S. The Case for Christianity. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1943.
LEWIS, C. S. Beyond Personality. London: Geoffrey Bles: The Centenary Press, 1944.
LEWIS, C. S. The Great Divorce. London: Geoffrey Bles: The Centenary Press, 1945.
LEWIS, C. S. The Abolition of Man. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1947.
LEWIS, C. S. Miracles: A Preliminary Study. London: Geoffrey Bles: The Centenary Press, 1947.

A curated collection of C. S. Lewis’s apologetic and intellectual works, 1940–1947, including the principal wartime Geoffrey Bles and Centenary Press titles through which Lewis became one of the defining Christian intellectual voices of the wartime and postwar periods. The sequence traces Lewis’s early apologetic career from The Problem of Pain and the wartime BBC broadcast books through The Abolition of Man, The Great Divorce, and Miracles: A Preliminary Study. 

First Editions. Ten volumes. Octavo. Original publisher’s cloth bindings. Nine volumes are first impressions or printings. The Screwtape Letters is the first edition, second impression, published in March 1942. Nine volumes retain their original dust jackets; The Problem of Pain is housed in a later Geoffrey Bles dust jacket.  

Provenance: The Problem of Pain with a contemporary B. H. Blackwell bookseller’s label, placing the volume within the Oxford academic book trade during Lewis’s lifetime. Broadcast Talks with an All Saints Church Library, Oxford inscription and later Rebecca Hussey’s Book Charity stamp.

Condition: Contents generally clean and complete, with expected wartime toning, occasional foxing, and scattered contemporary ownership markings as noted. Bindings sound and firm, with light rubbing, minor bumping, and occasional edge wear. Dust jackets show varying degrees of toning, chipping, edge wear, and small losses, but remain highly presentable as a group. A Very Good collection.

Individual condition notes: The Problem of Pain is housed in a later Geoffrey Bles “tenth edition” dust jacket, with the flap clipped. The Screwtape Letters dust jacket has chipping and minor loss at the spine ends; the detached rear flap is retained within the protective cover. A Preface to Paradise Lost is price-clipped, with a large square section removed from the inner flap and chipping to the spine ends and upper edge. Broadcast Talks bears the All Saints Church Library, Oxford inscription and later Rebecca Hussey’s Book Charity stamp; its jacket has a small label at the foot of the spine, minor losses, and several closed tears. The dust jackets of Christian Behaviour and Beyond Personality have been stabilized on the versos with archival materials. The Abolition of Man has a clipped inner flap, though the price is retained. Miracles has a small shelf notation at the foot of the dust-jacket spine. Further individual wear is visible in the accompanying photographs.

A full volume-by-volume condition report and further photographs are available upon request.
[Attributes: First Editions; Ten-Volume Set; Hard Covers; Dust Jackets.]