Kathryn Lindskoog
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Kathryn Ann "Kay" Lindskoog (née Stillwell; December 26, 1934 – October 21, 2003) was a C. S. Lewis scholar known partly for her theory that some works attributed to Lewis are forgeries, including The Dark Tower.
The main target of Lindskoog's writing was Walter Hooper, Lewis' literary co-executor who edited most of Lewis' posthumous work. Lindskoog points out that Hooper's relationship with Lewis was overstated in some of the publications that he edited, and she argues that several works published under Lewis's name were in fact by Hooper.
C. S. Lewis' stepson, Douglas Gresham, denies the forgery claims, saying that "The whole controversy thing was engineered for very personal reasons ... Her fanciful theories have been pretty thoroughly discredited.". It is clear from the diaries of Warren Lewis that Lewis' brother distrusted Hooper, whom he viewed as a dishonest interloper in the 1960s.[1] Lewis scholars are divided about the merits of Lindskoog's charges, but some of them have since been disproved by discovery of Lewis' own typescripts.[citation needed] Much of her perceived animosity towards Hooper may (or may not) have been derived from disappointment that she was not given any role in dealing with his literary legacy [citation needed], though Lewis acknowledged her as knowledgeable about his bibliography.[citation needed] The controversy was analysed by Nicolas Barker in "Essays in Criticism" (see reference), where he calls Lindskoog's work "a poisoned book".[which?]
