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Edwin W. Brown, M.D. is a retired Indiana University professor living in Indianapolis. For over 20 years he has been collecting books, journals, manuscripts, and other materials by and about C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, Dorothy L. Sayers, Charles Williams, and Owen Barfield. Although Dr. Brown's initial collection of C.S. Lewis' first edition works stemmed from the spiritual edification he received from Lewis' writings, he also determined Lewis to be a personally fascinating figure, and has since found the continued collection of these volumes to be a most satisfying and beneficial pursuit. Dr. Brown's interest in C.S. Lewis has fueled his collection of the other authors, most of whom are Lewis contemporaries.

During his education at Harvard Medical School Dr. Brown was first exposed to Lewis' classics The Screwtape Letters and Perelandra. Several years later while in Europe on sabbatical, Dr. Brown began to realize how personally vital the writings of C.S. Lewis were, thus leading to the quest to purchase only first edition Lewis writings. His travels since then have taken him throughout the British Isles to book stores, collectors, and shows.

Dr. Brown was born in Youngstown, Ohio, 1926. He was educated at Carnegie Institute of Technology (1943), Amherst College (1943-44), Houghton College (1946-47) and earned his M.D. at Harvard University (1953). During his working career Dr. Brown has held numerous important posts in education and in public health in the United States and around the world. Some of his most notable experiences include: Harvard Epidemiological Project, Egedesminde, Greenland (1956-57), Associate Medical Director People to People Health Foundation, Washington, (1965-57), Sr. Medical Advisor King Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia, (1977-78), and Associate Professor Medicine, Indiana University, (1966-85). Dr. Brown has also been very active in Christian Missions, particularly in eastern Europe.

Dr. Brown and his wife Patricia are the parents of three children, Edwin Wilson, John Currier, and Wende Patricia (Camp). Through their daughter Wende, a Taylor University elementary education graduate began the Brown's relationship with Taylor . Dr. Brown's frequent travels with the Association of American Medical Colleges International greatly inspired his love for collecting antiquarian books. While touring the United Kingdom on one such trip, he was taken by the decor of dark wood, green felt and brass furnishings of English pubs and their ambiance. His love for antiquarian books was complemented with his collection of various pieces of pubs found in antique stores around the globe. Eventually, Brown had his own English pub in suburban Indianapolis. He named it The Eagle and Child, after a particular pub in Oxford which he had visited. At that time, Dr. Brown did not realize that The Eagle and Child was the former meeting place of an eclectic group of world-renown English authors, the Inklings. The primary Inklings were C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams, though others joined them. The ambiance of Brown's Eagle and Child seems a perfect setting to showcase his literary cache - a large portion of which includes first editions of the Inklings' books.

Dr. Brown will be speaking at the Cowan Center for the Arts on Saturday, July 17, at 1:00 PM as part of the Tennessee Antiquarian Book Fair.

$5.00 general admission ticket will allow access to both the book fair and all speakers at Cowan Center for the Arts.