NARNIA BECKONS: C.S. LEWIS'S THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE AND BEYOND, by Ted Baehr and James Baehr, with Illustrations by Angela West, 2005 1st edition 1st printing, Broadman & Holman Publishers (Nashville, TN),. 8.612 x 9.9-inch HB with embossed gold lettering at linen-clad spine, 184 pp. printed on quality, thick, white, semi-glossy stock; strong VG+ condition (book is clean and tightly bound with bright covers, soft bump and slight fading at upper spine edge, slight fading at lower spine edge;, also soft bumps at tips of front corners; pages are clean and bright, like new; DJ is bright, clean and fully intact with corresponding bump at upper spine edge and small, very soft bumps at tips of upper front corners; $24.99 in bar code box at lower rear corner).
PLEASE NOTE: Author Ted Baehr signed the bookplate on the title page, under the printed text "This book is a giift to you from the author." The book comes with a signed letter from Ted Baehr to a female supporter in L.A. on his organization's letterhead - THE CHRISTIAN FILM & TELEVISION COMMISSION (indicating Dr. Theodore Baehr is its chairman).
This handsome, well-illustrated book is an excellent overview of C.S. Lewis's life, his discovery of his true calling while studying at Oxford, where he was a popular educator for many years. Importantly the bio sets the stage for better understanding his literary output, including the popular NARNIA books, and their well-realized intention to make Christian teachings audience-friendly, especially to kids. He considered his books "Christian parables," but many secular families enjoyed them as well because his religious underpinnings weren't off-putting. Also know he was so well-respected in England that the BBC trusted him to address and comfort the nation during the relentless aerial raids by Nazi bombers in the early years a of WW II before the U.S. entered the war and the tide of battle turned in famous of the democratic nations. His work clearly impacted the HARRY POTTER movies.
The only other signed copy on eBay, absent the letter, is listed as VG+ with chips at the bottom DJ spine edge and lightly faded board edgers. There's a personalized inscription (first names of a couple) and a date, but the signature is extremely abbreviated, It's $25.00 + $5.99 shipping. My copy's bookplate has a much better signature, and only the signed letter has a personalized inscription.
My Buy-It-Now price of $24.00 includes shipping bubble-wrapped in a cardboard box via media mail, which takes around 7 days with tracking.