The Marion E. Wade Center at

Wheaton College (Illinois) Wheaton College is a Private college, private Evangelical, Evangelical Christian Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois, United States. It was founded by evangelical abolitionists in 1860. Wheaton ...

is a special research collection of papers, books, and manuscripts, primarily relating to seven authors from the United Kingdom. Four of them are the

Inklings The Inklings were an informal literature, literary discussion group associated with J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis at the University of Oxford for nearly two decades between the early 1930s and late 1949. The Inklings were literary enthusia ...

Owen Barfield Arthur Owen Barfield (9 November 1898 – 14 December 1997) was an English philosopher, author, poet, critic, and member of the Inklings. Life Barfield was born in London, to Elizabeth (née Shoults; 1860–1940) and Arthur Edward Barfield (186 ...

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalen ...

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...

, and Charles Williams. The other authors are G. K. Chesterton,

George MacDonald George MacDonald (10 December 1824 – 18 September 1905) was a Scottish author, poet and Christian Congregational minister. He became a pioneering figure in the field of modern fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow-writer Lewis Carrol ...

, and

Dorothy L. Sayers Dorothy Leigh Sayers ( ; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime novelist, playwright, translator and critic. Born in Oxford, Sayers was brought up in rural East Anglia and educated at Godolphin School in Salisbury and Somerv ...

. The collection also includes materials on Lewis's wife, the poet Joy Davidman. The center is named after Marion E. Wade, founder of ServiceMaster. The Wade Center serves primarily as a research center, attracting scholars from around the world. It holds at least one copy of every book written by the Wade authors, plus books, articles, and other materials about the writers. It holds the world's fullest collection of Sayers's writings, including 30,000 pages of letters and documents both published and unpublished. For some of the Wade authors, collections of family documents are also available. The center's museum features memorabilia and changing displays about the authors from its collection of books, letters, manuscripts, and artifacts.

History and organization

The center was founded in 1965 by Clyde S. Kilby. In 2001 a new building was completed at the edge of the Wheaton College campus to house the Wade Center, with an expande
reading room
classroom space, and an enlarge
exhibits area
C. S. Lewis's dining-room table, which used to serve as desk space for visiting researchers, has been moved into the exhibits area near the Wade's own Lewis wardrobe. The Wade Center's second director, after Kilby, was Lyle W. Dorsett, who headed the center from 1983 until 1990. From 1994 until 2013, the small staff was headed by director Christopher W. Mitchell (author of ''Through the Wardrobe and into the Mind of C. S. Lewis'', 2009), until his departure to teach at Torrey Honors Institute at

Biola University Biola University () is a private, nondenominational, evangelical Christian university in La Mirada, California. It was founded in 1908 as the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. It has over 150 programs of study in nine schools offering bachelor' ...

. From 2013 until 2018, Marjorie Lamp Mead acted as interim director of the Wade Center. She is the author of ''A Reader's Guide Through the Wardrobe: Exploring C. S. Lewis's Classic Story'', and of ''A Reader's Guide To Caspian: a journey into C. S. Lewis's Narnia''. From July 2018, the Wade Center was headed by co-directors David Downing and Crystal Downing. David C. Downing is the author of four scholarly books on C.S. Lewis: ''Planets in Peril'', ''The Most Reluctant Convert'', ''Into the Wardrobe'', and ''Into the Region of Awe''. Crystal Downing has written two books on Dorothy Sayers, ''Writing Performances: The Stages of Dorothy L. Sayers'', which was granted the Barbara Reynolds Award for best Sayers scholarship in 2009 by the Dorothy L. Sayers Society, and ''Subversive: Christ, Culture and the Shocking Dorothy L. Sayers'' along with nearly 100 other scholarly essays. Since July 2024, Jim Beitler has been serving as director of the Wade Center, alongside associate director Marjorie Lamp Mead. Beitler’s books include ''Seasoned Speech: Rhetoric in the Life of the Church'' and ''Charitable Writing: Cultivating Virtue Through Our Words'' (with co-author Richard Hughes Gibson). The center hosts special events related to its authors, such as meetings of scholarly societies, book discussions and classes.

Publications

The Wade Center publishes the journal ''VII: Journal of the Marion E. Wade Center'', highlighting works by and about Wade-related authors, including

and Tolkien research.

Notes

External links

Center's Website

Resources held at the Center
{{authority control Research libraries in the United States Wheaton College (Illinois) Museums in DuPage County, Illinois Literary museums in the United States Inklings