It replaced Perelandra as his favorite fiction book, with his name on it.

I have to be missing something...
is this a joke or was Lewis vain and holding his own work as too highly regarded?

He just had bad taste in his own work.

I'm missing something. What's wrong with having favorites among your own works?

I'll take his opinion. Still haven't reread FACES, though.

Nothing.

No. He was an author who had opinions as to his best work. Sounds fair.

He was asked in an interview, the last one he gave before he died, which of his books he regarded as his favorite, and he said 'Till We Have Faces', he didn't say it was his best, he said it was his favorite.

Well...

In a 1957 letter, he called it "much my best book". In 1959, he referred to it as "the favorite of all my books", and in 1960, "I consider it far and away the best I have written".

I bet I could find more. So, it was his favorite and his best, in his opinion.

He also referred to it as a complete flop. The worst flop I've ever had. My one big failure both with the critics and with the public. My best book but not many people agree with me.

One can find some critics who did.

The interview I am talking about he said his best work was 'Perelandra' and his favorite work was 'Till We Have Faces'. That interview was in August 1963.

I was wondering which interview that was. The usual last interview I know of was with a guy named Wirt, and it was in May 63, doesn't touch on FACES. Gimme a reference for the August interview. I'm tired of looking stuff up. Been doing it all week for a history lesson I'm conducting in Another Place, on Another Subject. But in July-August 1963, Lewis was barely up to receiving close friends, latterly drifting in and out of focus. Who was the interviewer?

But I agree that he said it was his best. And his favorite, as noted. Also his most mature. I found two more such references, and maybe 6 more complaints about the critics. I knew I could.

You don't have a r--- l---, do you?

I got these books.

Or

These books got me.

I just thumbed through 4-5 Lewis bios. No sort of interview in Aug seen. And the visit from Tolkien and Fr. John seems to have been in Oct. No interviewers, they.

I remember the exact wording of the questions and answers...

Q: Of all the books you have written, which do you think is your best? I think it is 'Perelandra'.

A: I agree

Q: But my favorite book of yours is 'Till We Have Faces'

A: I agree

And...

nothing else?

Could it have been Hooper reporting something said in a conversation? Hooper was there in July and August. Lewis was out of hospital and in the Kilns by early August. Not reliably coherent. Hooper left in late Sep.

I need my copy of George Sayer's JACK. I bet.

Maybe. Checked Griffin's bio. No visitors in August mentioned. Nothing of use.

But Sayer was a very close friend and was in and out of the Kilns during the last few months of Lewis' life. No mention of an August interview, in Jack, either.

In the body of the Sayer's bio, discussing Perelandra, Sayer says it was the space-travel novel he (Lewis) liked best, and of all his books, the one most essentially his own. I count that a vote for favorite.

Anent Faces, he says "Jack sometimes said that he thought Till We Have Faces was his best novel, and sometimes he thought Perelandra was. Sayer is also the most detailed about the part Joy played in the making of Faces.

Considering all this, and all the letters I've found, I conclude:

Lewis thought of Perelandra as his favorite book, without judging its quality, until he wrote Faces. After which Perelandra was displaced by it, and came in 2nd. Mostly. He considered Faces his best work, and most mature, and it was redolent of Joy. But he also recalled his old flame.

I misdoubt an interview in Aug 1963. At this point in time.

I am looking into getting a r... l... from Amazon.

No, that isn't it. He went on saying that there is a difference between 'the best' and 'your favorite', and that 'Till We Have Faces' is his favorite because it was the one he most enjoyed writing and that of all his books, his least favorite is 'The Screwtape Letters' because he found it very tedious to write and he found it difficult to constantly think backwards, however, saying that is it his least favorite doesn't mean that he thinks it is bad, and he knows that many people have found it interesting or helpful, but he didn't enjoy writing it, and that is why he never wrote a sequel even though some were clamoring for one.

It was an extended interview about 5 pages long, and it was included in one of those collected books of essays, either 'Fern seed and Elephants' or 'God In the Dock'.

Well, that easy enough to check, if either are the source.

For us folks lacking a r... l..., that is.

The Screwtape comment is certainly familiar, it's often reprinted. However, the no sequel comment overlooks "Screwtape Proposes a Toast", technically.

Edited: and not really, as to the last. Lewis' comments on writing Screwtape were from an article printed in THE GUARDIAN, in 1961, and often now included in reprints of Screwtape Letters and Screwtape Proposes a Toast, as it was originally intended to be used. It does mention his dislike of writing Letters, and states why he overcame his resolve not to revisit the concept, when THE SATURDAY EVENING POST tempted him, in 1959. The basic concept was also expressed in the May 1963 "last interview" with Wirt. No mention of favorite/best books, or Faces/Perelandra in that.

I also have a feeling I'm overlooking something.

Checking Fernseeds is not as easy as I thought. Cant find it. Will continue. After r... l... intervention.

Conclusion. Supported by:

My Fern-Seed and Elephants, which is either the 1975 or the 1977 Fontana pb edition, is still missing. Which means I need to replace it. But not to despair. All the sermons/essays (not a propitious collection to look for an interview in) not reprinted in Weight of Glory (3rd ed.), which I have examined, appeared in The World's Last Night (I don't own it). Which was published in 1960. Save only the essay "Historicism). Which appears in [i]Christian Reflections. I checked it. Nope, as you would guess Either way, they all predate 1960, and fail, thus.

Same with God In The Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics Again, not a likely hunting ground. And the collection has (as far as I can tell), only a couple of items post 1962. One of which is the aforementioned Wirts interview of May, 1963. Which (as related) mentions his aversion to the writing of Screwtape, and nothing on Perelandra or Faces .

And it's not in Of Other Worlds. Nothing in Present Concerns is later than 1957. Selected Literary Essays and Studies in Medieval & Renaissance Literature eliminate themselves. I don't own They Asked For A Paper, but only 2 selections are not covered elsewhere, and the book was printed in 1962.

When Hooper began his mix, stir and reprint activities for Lewis' shorter works, I didn't always try to collect a complete set of titles, since I saw I usually wasn't seeing much in new materials. So it's possible I missed it. If you find it again, I'd like to know. For now I conclude that no interview occurred after May 1963, and that by Wirt. Lewis said what I've found him saying, referring to Faces and Perelandra as sometime best, sometimes favorite.

Further, I know not.

Now to go read something. An article on OCD, maybe.