Dear Friend,
A little while ago, we shared a lecture from historian Joseph Loconte on the remarkable friendship between J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis—and the war, ideas, and convictions that shaped their greatest works.
The response was so encouraging that we wanted to make it even easier to revisit and share.
We’ve now turned that lecture into a beautifully formatted ebook that you can read at your own pace, highlight, and return to whenever you’d like.
Halfway through the darkest years of the twentieth century—as fascism, communism, and total war unraveled the moral foundations of the West—two Oxford friends made a quiet pact. J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis would answer the cynicism of their age not with propaganda, but with stories of courage, sacrifice, and hope.
In this ebook, New York Times bestselling historian Joseph Loconte tells that story: how war brought these two men together in friendship, and how their friendship made possible The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Mere Christianity.
It’s history, literature, and moral clarity woven together—exactly the kind of serious, joyful inquiry we are working to recover at the University of Austin.
Whether you watched the lecture or are discovering it for the first time, I hope you’ll enjoy this new edition.
Download your free copy here:
https://connect.uaustin.org/tolkien-and-lewis-ebook
Thank you again for being part of this effort, and for helping us preserve the great inheritance of Western civilization for a new generation.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Froehlich
Chief Development Officer