1946 C. S. LEWIS. A Christmas Sermon for Pagans. First & Only Edition. Very Rare!

On offer is C.S. Lewis’s incredible – but virtually unknown – essay entitled, "A Christmas Sermon for Pagans." This essay by Lewis was published in the 1946 Christmas Issue of Strand Magazine and, due to wartime paper rationing that remained in place until late 1946 (and a strict circulation control of all magazines), few copies of this digest-sized periodical survived. This essay was not “discovered” until 2013, and was not published in its entirety until 2017 when it was published in the Marion Wade Center's Journal, VII. On offer here is an original copy of the 1946 Christmas Issue in which this remarkable essay first appeared.

Walter Hooper, Lewis's bibliographer, completely overlooked its existence and it was unknown to the entire C. S. Lewis community. It has never been re-published in an anthology, like every other essay Lewis wrote.

It is a superb reading of the Christmas story in Lewis' own unconventional way, approaching the birth of Christ sideways through the lens of pagan myth. 

Lewis, C. S. A Christmas Sermon for Pagans, in The Strand for December, 1946. London. The Strand. 1946. 

Good minus with some general wear, a closed tear on the front cover next to the spine that begins 5” down from the top and that has therefor caused the bottom 2 ½” to be separated from the spine. The rest of the spine is secure, and it is, aside from the front bottom 2 ½” of the cover, tightly bound. There is creasing and wear, primarily to the front cover, and the top right corners are slightly bent. I don't recall ever having handled this before.