Clive Staples Lewis was born on November 29 in Belfast, Ireland, to parents Albert and Florence Lewis; he had a brother, Warren Hamilton Lewis. When he was nine, his mother died from cancer and he was sent to boarding school. In 1917 he enlisted in the British army and fought in WWI. He attended Oxford and later taught there as well as at Cambridge, and was a prolific writer who counted J.R.R. Tolkien among his closest friends. Lewis and Tolkien belonged to a group of writers known as “The Inklings;” these writers critiqued each other’s work, and both The Chronicles of Narnia and Tolkien’s The Hobbit were influenced by this group’s interactions. Lewis married Joy Davidman in 1956; she died of cancer in 1960. C.S. Lewis died in 1963.

Though he was raised a Christian, C.S. Lewis abandoned that faith while young. However, his intellectual explorations and the influence of Christian friends such as Tolkien led Lewis back to Christianity, and many of his writings reflect his Christian faith. He is probably best known for the Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity (originally a series of radio talks given during WWII), and The Screwtape Letters.

Bibliography/Additional Resources

The Official C.S. Lewis website: https://www.cslewis.com/us/about-cs-lewis/

The C.S. Lewis Institute: https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/c-s-lewis-life-works/

The C.S. Lewis Foundation: https://www.cslewis.org/resource/chronocsl/