AUTHOR: Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22
November 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to
his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, poet, academic,
medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian, and Christian apologist
from Belfast, Ireland. He is known for both his fictional work, especially The
Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space
Trilogy and his non-fiction, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles,
and The Problem of Pain.
Lewis and fellow novelist J. R. R.
Tolkien were close friends. Both authors served on the English faculty at
Oxford University, and both were active in the informal Oxford literary group
known as the "Inklings". According to his memoir Surprised by Joy,
Lewis had been baptised in the Church of Ireland (part of the Anglican
Communion) at birth, but fell away from his faith during his adolescence. Owing
to the influence of Tolkien and other friends, at the age of 32 Lewis returned
to the Anglican Communion, becoming "a very ordinary layman of the Church
of England". His faith had a profound effect on his work, and his wartime
radio broadcasts on the subject of Christianity brought him wide acclaim.
In 1956, he married the American
writer Joy Davidman, 17 years his junior, who died four years later of cancer
at the age of 45. Lewis died three years after his wife, as the result of renal
failure. His death came one week before his 65th birthday. Media coverage of
his death was minimal; he died on 22 November 1963—the same day that U.S.
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and the same day another famous
author, Aldous Huxley, died.
Lewis's works have been translated
into more than 30 languages and have sold millions of copies. The books that
make up The Chronicles of Narnia have sold the most and have been
popularised on stage, TV, radio, and cinema.
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