This archive contains business correspondence and miscellanea relating to Geoffrey Bles, the publisher of various works by C.S. Lewis. Prominent correspondents include: C.S. Lewis, Jocelyn Gibb, Owen Barfield, J.R.R. Tolkien, Warren H. Lewis, Clyde S. Kilby, Nevill Coghill, Spencer Curtis Brown, and Austin Farrer. Topics discussed in the correspondence include notes on the publication of Lewis’s works, permissions and copyright agreements, translations, dramatizations, fan mail, and general reference questions.

The originals of these papers are held by the Bodleian Library, Oxford, England, and were deposited there by Collins, publishers, through Jocelyn Gibb and Walter Hooper in 1974. The Bodleian shelf numbers for this collection are: Dep. c. 771-775 (formerly MSS. Res. b. 75-6). The date ranges are as follows: c. 771: 1956-1960, c. 772: 1961- 1963, c. 773: 1964, c. 774: 1965, c. 775: 1966-1974 and misc. papers. These copies were received at the Wade Center in 2008.

Each folder lists a selected group of included correspondents and topics, arranged chronologically with the exception of folders 34 and 35. This finding aid is not an exhaustive listing of correspondents and topics contained in the archive. All C.S. Lewis letters in this archive may also be found in the C.S. Lewis letters collection in the Wade Center (see: Publisher Correspondence). Letters by Owen Barfield and J.R.R. Tolkien have also been copied and placed in the Barfield and Tolkien letter collections.

All letters by Warren H. Lewis have been cross-referenced with the Warren H. Lewis Letter Collection. Some manuscript material by C.S. Lewis has been removed from this archive and placed in the Lewis manuscript collection, including the call numbers: CSL / MS-183 to 190.