Walter Hooper (1931 – 2020)
15 January 2021 | Amon Hen, № 287: January, 2021, 16
The man who served Tolkien’s great friend, C.S. Lewis described by The Independent (7 March 1994) as C.S. Lewis’ other American (the first being poet and novelist Joy Davidman), Walter Hooper was born in Reidsville, North Carolina. He was educated at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. After serving in the U.S. Army, he read Theology at Virginia Episcopal Seminary. He taught English at Christ School, Arden, North Carolina, 1960 – 61, and then at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, 1961 – 63. On discovering Lewis’ writings, Hooper was deeply affected by them. Lewis in fact was to become his lifelong mentor. After corresponding for a while, Lewis invited Walter Hooper to visit him in Oxford. They met on 7 June 1963, and Hooper attended his first meeting of the Inklings group of Lewis’ friends a few days later.…
❧