Savanna Cowles  |  Contributing Writer

APU English professor Diana Glyer is passionate about research and the creative process in her field. Her work in English has allowed her to travel frequently to England, and over the course of her career she has published and lectured extensively on C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and the Inklings. Collide sat down with Dr. Glyer to discuss her time in Oxford, her publications and the topic of “intellectual hospitality.”

Collide: You’ve spent some time in Oxford; were you there teaching?

Diana Glyer: Most of the time I’ve spent in Oxford I’ve spent researching. The Bodleian Library there has a lot of C.S. Lewis’ and J.R.R. Tolkien’s papers. One of the things I’m devoted to is doing primary research; I’m interested in what they said and what the actual manuscripts show about their writing process.

C: Are there other places that hold these manuscripts, or are they exclusive to the Bodleian?

DG: If you want primary documents like letters, manuscripts or diaries, you have to go to a specialized library. There are a number of them, but one of the best is at the Bodleian, where they have some of Tolkien’s manuscripts, especially ones of his lesser-known work.

C: Was this time spent in Oxford for working on your first book?

DG: Yes; when I was researching for “The Company They Keep.” I found a lot of information here and at Wheaton College. Part of the fun of being at the Bodleian was that when I spent a lot of time studying there, I got to stay in C.S Lewis’ house. They open it up to researchers who come on recommendation.

C: What was it like staying at C.S. Lewis’ house?

DG: It’s really very special. To be writing about C.S. Lewis and then to be waking up in his house and to eat breakfast in his kitchen and to sit and work on drafts of your paper in his living room was a special privilege. When you write about a person, you learn things by their environment. Being there, poking around his backyard, walking from where he lived to where he worked, visiting and worshipping in his church allows you to sort of get a flavor of what his life was like.

C: How long did you stay there?

DG: I was at Lewis’ house for a little over a week. I travel to England fairly often to give lectures or to do research.

C: Are the lectures you give mainly on Lewis and Tolkien?

DG: A lot of the work I do is related to learning about Lewis. A few years ago, I gave a lecture on his brother, Warren Lewis. Very little is known about Warren, but it turns out he had a romance with a missionary doctor who was stationed in Papua New Guinea, and I found their love letters. So my next project after I finish my second book, which is about Lewis and Tolkien and their creativity, I’ll be working on a book about Warren Lewis [and] his love story with this missionary. I’ve actually written a play about their story and it’s been performed several times. I’m excited to bring this story to life not only through the book I write, but to perform that play again. We had one performance of it here at APU in the Black Box Theater and I played the role of the missionary.

C: What other topics have you lectured about?

DG: Another topic that’s interesting to me that came out of my work at APU is investigating the topic of intellectual hospitality. One of the things that should mark us as Christians is the ability to listen generously to different points of view, whether we agree with them or not, and to be thoughtful and kind in the way we interact with one another at the level of ideas. To not be dismissive, to not be short-tempered and to not reject an idea until we’ve really taken time to understand it. I put together a talk on this last summer for the C.S. Lewis Institute. It’s on YouTube where people can hear my thoughts on how we can listen more generously and learn how to disagree with one another with charity, which I think is a good thing for people to know.

Watch Glyer’s 2014 C.S. Lewis Institute address entitled “C.S. Lewis at Table with Dante and Zeus: Pushing (Against) the Limits of Intellectual Hospitality,” through the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7GTtZEW9Kk.