Conspiracy Theories for Lewis Fans

In _Sleuthing C.S. Lewis_, Kathryn Lindskoog carries on her crusade against Walter Hooper with all the balance and objectivity of a prosecuting attorney. Readers of Mrs. Lindskoog's earlier book _Light in the Shadowlands_ may find it useful to know that this latest book is not really a sequel but a modest revision. (Neither the Amazon website nor the Mercer University Press website mentions that fact.)
The reason for the relatively low rating I gave _Sleuthing_ is that I don't think the way Mrs. Lindskoog presents her case is commensurate with the seriousness of her allegations. Unlike a real prosecuting attorney, Mrs. Lindskoog is able, and more than willing, to present information whose prejudicial effect outweighs its probative value. I don't see the point of the rumormongering that takes place on pages 90, 177, and 178, or the catty remark about Hooper's conversion that is included on page 179, for instance. For some time Lindskoog has been making insinuations about Hooper's sexual orientation, and those appear, if anything, to be getting more numerous. (As a small example, compare footnote 6 on page 58 of _Sleuthing_ to footnote 6 on page 55 of _Light_.)
It would have been nice if Mrs. Lindskoog had said more about her methodology. She bridles at the charge that her theories are unfalsifiable, but the way that both similarities and dissimilarities between disputed and undisputed Lewis texts are used to bolster charges of forgery makes one wonder what sort of evidence she would accept as exculpatory. A.Q. Morton's identification of _The Dark Tower_ as a composite work is reported by Mrs. Lindskoog, but criticism of Morton's cusum technique by Michael Hilton, David Holmes, Pieter de Haan, and Erik Schils is not.
There are probably few living scholars who know more about C.S. Lewis than Mrs. Lindskoog does. The first book about Lewis I ever bought was the 1981 edition of Lindskoog's _C.S. Lewis: Mere Christian_; I enjoyed it greatly. Looking back at that book, I see that while Mrs. Lindskoog now writes "The most far-fetched fantasy of 1977 may have been the idea that Lewis was the author of _The Dark Tower_", in 1981 she wrote that "Lewis unfortunately got only halfway through [_The Dark Tower_] . . . No one knows why Lewis gave up on this innovative story". ( )

The late Kathryn Lindskoog, after writing some perceptive C. S. Lewis criticism, devoted many years to elaborating accusations against Walter Hooper, Lewis's self-appointed literary executor. This book is the last installment. Its major charge is that Hooper forged a number of minor works in the Lewis canon, including the fragmentary novel The Dark Tower. In my judgment, Mrs. Lindskoog's case if very weak. My review is at http://stromata.tripod.com/id42.htm ( )