A Letter from Guy Brown

This is a letter from Guy Brown, JBP’s long-term publisher in America. I [Peter] found this in the archives JB’s wife Vera left me. It is a touching tribute:

I have saved this letter as one of my very last official acts as the director of religious books department of Macmillan. This has been done deliberately so that I could end my eleven years of service with the greatest tribute that can be paid to any of my authors. No-one of my authors has won the affection of the American public as has J.B. Phillips. His publications have without exception won their way into the hearts and lives of countless thousands of Americans. No one dare predict how many lives have been enriched by his published works. Hundreds of letters attest to that fact, and surely there are thousands of his admirers who may not put their sentiments into these letters of appreciation that they most certainly feel. Sufficient evidence is in hand to confirm that J.B. Phillips has brought about a revolutionary change for good in the lives of the countless thousands of his American readers. He has communicated, in a new and vital manner that has had no peer since the early days of C.S. Lewis. Indeed I am firmly convinced that the writings of J.B. Phillips are more significant in the American religious scene than those of any other single British author. Indeed he may very well be the most influential writer of popular religious non-fiction in the English-speaking world today.