The Screwtape Letters. by LEWIS, C. S - 1942

London: Geoffrey Bles,, 1942. Octavo. Original black cloth, printed paper label to spine. With the dust jacket. Housed in a custom red quarter morocco box, spine lettered in gilt, beige cloth sides. First few leaves a little creased; dust jacket with light toning to spine panel, faint soiling, and very minor peripheral chipping. A very nice copy indeed, and most unusual thus. First edition, first impression. This fantasy novel takes the form of a series of letters between an experienced devil "Screwtape" and his nephew "Wormwood", a Junior Tempter, and addresses numerous questions of Christian theology. Though the book sparkles with wit, Lewis found its composition difficult and unpleasant: "The strain produced a sort of spiritual cramp... It almost smothered me before I was done" (cited in Zaleski, Literary Lives of the Inklings, p. 296). Lewis dedicated the work to J. R. R. Tolkien, who was somewhat uneasy about the book; so profound was Tolkien's belief in the powers of evil that he thought it unwise for Lewis to write humorously on the subject.