Which Cambridge college appointed C.S. Lewis to its first chair of Medieval and Renaissance English?

Magdalene College, Cambridge, appointed C.S. Lewis to its first chair of Medieval and Renaissance English.

In 1954, Lewis left Oxford for Cambridge after being appointed the first professor holding the newly established chair of Medieval and Renaissance English. He became a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and held the professorship until his retirement in 1963.

The move marked a major change in Lewis’s academic career. Before Cambridge, he had spent almost three decades at Magdalen College, Oxford, as a fellow and tutor. The two colleges have similar names, which causes frequent confusion: Magdalen College is in Oxford, while Magdalene College, with an extra “e,” is in Cambridge.

Lewis continued writing and teaching at Cambridge, although his public reputation increasingly rested on Christian apologetics and imaginative fiction. He died on 22 November 1963, the same day that U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated and fellow writer Aldous Huxley died.