One for two is never good enough

I just received an e-mail from one of my colleagues:

“I had a reader call with issues about a couple of your columns in 7 today. On page 11 where you talk about the “C.S. Lewis’ ) ‘Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,’ you refer to it as the first in the series. The caller said the first is actually called ‘The Magician’s Nephew.’ Also, on page 15 you talk about the 1937 Orson Welles (‘War of the Worlds’) broadcast. The caller said it was actually in 1938. He didn’t give his name.”

The reader is only partially correct on the first one.

Yes, “The Magician’s Nephew” deals with issues that occur before “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” However, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” was published first , in 1950, some five years before “The Magician’s Nephew.” And even Lewis agreed that the series could, and even should, begin with “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”

As for the second, he’s correct. The broadcast took place on Halloween, 1938 . Mea culpa.

Below : Orson Welles, leading the Mercury Theatre in the infamous 1938 – not 1937! – “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast hoax.