Walter Hooper

Aged 89, Hooper died from complications of COVID-19 on 7 December 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in England.

In 1977, Hooper published the unfinished science fiction novel The Dark Tower, a previously unknown work by C.S. Lewis. The novel resembles Lewis's known works in some ways and departs from them in others. A school of critics headed by Kathryn Lindskoog accused Hooper of either forging the work in toto or adding a lot of padding onto small fragments of an unknown work by Lewis to create the published work. Lindskoog also questioned the authenticity of other posthumously published works edited by Hooper.

In 1972 Hooper was awarded the second annual Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies, for scholarly contribution to the criticism and appreciation of the epic fantasy literature generated by the Inklings School, by the Mythopoeic Society.

Hooper also studied for the Anglican ministry at St Stephen's House, Oxford and was ordained deacon in 1964 and priest in 1965. He was Chaplain of Wadham College, Oxford 1965-67 and Assistant Chaplain of Jesus College, Oxford 1967-70. He converted to the Catholic Church in 1988, and was a daily communicant at the Oxford Oratory. He described meeting Pope John Paul II in 1984, when still an Anglican, as "When the pope walked into the room it was as if Aslan himself had arrived."

Hooper was born in Reidsville, North Carolina, United States. He earned an M.A. in education in 1958 from the University of North Carolina and was an instructor in English at the University of Kentucky in the early 1960s. He served briefly in 1963 as C.S. Lewis's private secretary when Lewis was in declining health. He devoted himself to Lewis's memory after his death in November 1963, eventually taking up residence in Oxford, England, where he lived until his death.

Hooper rejected these accusations, and independent research exists to disprove them and confirm the authenticity of the posthumous Lewis works edited by Hooper. Professor Alastair Fowler of the University of Edinburgh had Lewis as his doctoral supervisor in 1952, and he recalls discussing The Dark Tower with his mentor. This is a firsthand account of the manuscript's existence during Lewis' lifetime. Lewis' stepson Douglas Gresham also disagrees with Lindskoog's forgery claims. "The whole controversy thing was engineered for very personal reasons…. Her fanciful theories have been pretty thoroughly discredited."

Walter McGehee Hooper (March 27, 1931 – December 7, 2020) was an American writer and literary advisor of the estate of C.S. Lewis. He was a literary trustee for Owen Barfield from December 1997 to October 2006.