I asked for The Major and The Missionary: The Letters of Warren Lewis and Blanche Biggs last Christmas and have enjoyed reading it this month. The Major and The Missionary is edited by Diana Pavlac and contains the entirety of the correspondence between Warren Lewis, brother to CS Lewis, and Dr. Blanche Biggs, a medical missionary in Papua New Guinea.
Dr. Biggs wrote to Major Lewis in 1968 asking his advice as she was nearing the end of twenty years of medical missionary service. She wondered if she should destroy her letters, publish them herself (many had said they should be a book), or have someone else write a book about her life. Thus begins a five year correspondence and friendship between the two.
While I truly want you to get this book, I am annoyed to tell you that it only exists in paperback (here on Amazon, and here at The Rabbit Room where's it's published). In researching for this post, I did find an audio version on Audible that seems to be from a stage adaptation based on their letters and is read by a man and a woman (so you can keep who is writing straight).
The audio book seems to play up that theirs was a love story, though I think "rare friendship" is a more apt description. Please don't let that bit of marketing dismiss this gift to us.
First of all, both Dr. Biggs and Major Lewis are—as one Amazon reviewer said—"witty, perplexing, and insightful." Their letters are not like reading a letter penned by a child at summer camp or a deeply philosophical argument you need to pay attention to in order to follow. "Witty, perplexing, and insightful" is an apt description!
Beyond good writing, I have so enjoyed hearing snippets from Dr. Biggs about her missionary life. So much is familiar. It's been a humbling reminder that our modern era isn't as different from previous eras as we might think. For instance, she wrestled with knowing when to retire as too many of her colleagues had stayed on longer than they should because leaving is so hard. But her agency wanted her to stay on as she had so much knowledge they needed her to pass on to the next generation.
I haven't finished the book yet, but so far they have touched on politics, missionary funding, challenges of rotating people, challenges of staggering a leave, "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland, needing to discipline colleagues, sexual misconduct (I'd say assault and the one reason I almost didn't recommend this book), the weather, illness, and time for reading.
Sounds familiar, eh?
Parts though, read from another era, thankfully. Some of the language around "civilization" and "being civilized" is cringe worthy. And the aforementioned situation that read to me like a sexual assault on a young woman by multiple staff turned into a "why do we take sexual sins more seriously than other sins." But truly the incident was in two of the letters, so, not a major theme.
Their friendship and respect for each other was enjoyable to watch blossom letter by letter.
If you're looking for an the reminder that we join a long cloud of witnesses (and that other eras have been semi-dumpster fires too), The Major and The Missionary is a delightful next read.
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