On 22 January 1957 C.S. Lewis wrote to a boy named Martin: "The books
don't tell us what happened to Susan. She is left alive in this world at
the end, having then turned into a rather silly, conceited young woman.
But there is plenty of time for her to mend, and perhaps she will get to
Aslan's country in the end-in her own way."
"And why not write stories for yourself to fill up the gaps in Narnian
history?" Letter to a girl named Denise, 8 September 1962.
In 1980 a cloistered Carmelite nun in Flemington, New Jersey, wrote an
eighth chronicle of Narnia, telling what happened to Susan, and called it
The Centaur's Cavern. It was so good that she soon found a Protestant
publisher who wanted to bring it out. The altruistic plan was to make it
extremely clear that this was not by C. S. Lewis, and to donate all profits
to the work of Mother Teresa. One of Lewis's personal friends, the
well-known author Sheldon Vanauken, endorsed the project; and everyone
involved felt sure that Lewis would have approved. But those in control of
the Lewis Estate turned the nun down flat. Narnia was very private
property, and no creative nuns were allowed to trespass in the name of
charity.
The right to issue new books about Narnia was evidently being reserved for
whoever might offer high enough financial gain to the owners of the Lewis
Estate.
Kathryn
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