Lewis, Clive Staples

(1898–1963)

   Novelist and Devotional Writer.

   Lewis was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and during the course of his career as a teacher of English Literature, he held chairs at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities. He is primarily remembered for his Narnia books, which are allegorical children’s novels, and for his works of simple theology. In particular, his Screwtape Letters (imaginary letters from a senior to a junior devil), his Mere Christianity and his Letters to Malcolm Chiefly on Prayer are still read. Late in life, he married Joy Davidman, an American divorcee. His reaction to her early death from cancer is agonisingly recorded in A Grief Observed which was later turned into a successful Hollywood film. Lewis himself has been criticised as theologically naive and as patronising towards women. None the less his books remain popular.

   C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy (1955);

   A. Arnott, The Secret Country of C.S. Lewis (1974);

   R.L. Green and W. Hooper, C.S. Lewis: A Biography (1974);

   A.N. Wilson, C.S. Lewis (1990).