Wheaton College in Chicago pays tribute to seven famous authors at their Marion E. Wade Center. All British and all Christian theme driven, these seven authors, including J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis , are known for their imagination and legacies.

Jeremy Yoder, children’s story author and writer, visited Wheaton’s Wade  Center to see artifacts from Tolkien and Lewis. With his permission, we’re reprinting his story and photos about the famous pieces of furniture he saw there.

I went to Wheaton College in Chicago and visited their Wade Center with items on seven British authors. Only J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis truly interested me. I’ll just say it was very cool to touch the desk where Tolkien wrote the The Hobbit , and some of The Lord of the Rings
…

Most shocking was its size! (I’m beside it in the next picture to give perspective — I’m just under six feet and the desk is on a raised platform.) A humbling lesson to those who think they need the latest in technology and conveniences to write anything, much less a masterpiece.

There’s a small plaque in the lower left corner that says: “J.R.R. Tolkien’s writing desk on which he drafted portions of The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, and entirely produced — wrote, typed, and illustrated — The Hobbit
.”

The next item on my short tour is a desk used by C.S. Lewis. While interesting, there was no information that he wrote any particular piece(s) on it, so the “wow” factor wasn’t quite the same…

Of more interest to me was the actual wardrobe that inspired The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. One of his relatives made it. As a child, Lewis used to gaze upon it; as an adult, it served as his entry into Narnia. I loved this simple source of inspiration that would enthrall millions for decades…

In the final shot below, my wife and I are peering into the wardrobe… but I regret that we were unable to find any snow, lampposts, or umbrella-toting fauns.