Backward Mutters

I just learned that Tolkein and Lewis first met on May 11, 1926 my birthday–albeit not 1926. Alan Jacobs in his book on Lewis, The Narnian, writes of Lewis’ first impression of Tolkein in this way,

“…the two young dons talked for the first time. In his diary entry…Lewis contrives to condescend to a man who, though just six years his senior, had achieved far more and whose career seemed at that time far more promising: ‘He is a smooth, pale, fluent little chap…. No harm in him: only needs a smack or so.’”