The Society for the Prevention of Progress

Warren Lewis writes:

In May 1944 Jack received an amusing letter from the Society for the Prevention of Progress, of Walnut Creek, California, inviting him to become a member and requesting him to forward his credentials. The signature on his reply was instigated by one of the Society's rules to which his attention had been called: Membership and the privileges of the Society are denied to such individuals as Henry A. Wallace and this fellow Beveridge*.

Dear Sir,

While feeling that I was born a member of your Society, I am nevertheless honoured to receive the outward seal of membership. I shall hope by continued orthodoxy and the unremitting practice of Reaction, Obstruction, and Stagnation to give you no reason for repenting your favour.

I humbly submit that in my Riddell Lectures entitled The Abolition of Man you will find another work not all unworthy of consideration for admission to the canon.

Yours regressively,

C.S. Lewis

"Beverages not Beveridges"
(my motto)
~from The Collected Letters of C.S. Lews: Volume II (May 1944)

*William Henry Beveridge, first Lord Beveridge (1879-1963), a social reformer and economist, whose 'Beveridge plan' became the blueprint for the present welfare state.
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On this day (evening, actually):

1944 J. R. R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and R. E.Havard listened to Warren Lewis read a chapter of his first book, The Splendid Century.