A Brief Biography of C.S. Lewis - explorefaith
a             timeline of Lewis's life
Clive                 Staples Lewis—known to his friends and family as “Jack”—is                       one of the most influential writers on Christian faith                 of the twentieth century. Author of more than 70 titles, including                 works of science                       fiction, fantasy, poetry, letters, autobiography and Christian                       apologetics, Lewis’s book sales are reported to be                       more than 2 million annually. That number promises to skyrocket                       with the               release of Walden Media’s new screen version of Lewis’s The               Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Born                 in Belfast in 1898, Lewis was educated at home and at boarding                 schools in Britain.                 After his mother died when he was almost ten, “Jack” grew                 closer to his brother Warren, who was two years his senior.
Lewis studied English and philosophy at Oxford and served in                 the military. He became a university man who taught (mostly English                 literature) at Oxford’s     Magdalen (pronounced “Maudlin”) college for much of his life.     Later in life he was appointed to a professorship at Cambridge. As a member     of the     Oxford faculty, Lewis developed a strong reputation in English literary criticism     and a much larger reputation as a witty and imaginative writer of poetry,     fiction, and non-fiction works on Christian faith.
In                 a time of growing secularism, Lewis was a persuasive defender                 of Christianity. Some of his best-known books began as broadcast talks in which he explained       the essentials of the Christian faith to a broad listening audience. To                 do this, he spoke in simple terms, using homely comparisons.                 These talks were       collected and published as Mere Christianity, one of the most       popular books about Christian belief in recent history. Mere Christianity has       brought many people to the Christian faith and contributed to ecumenical                 dialogue, moving       easily across Christian denominations by focusing on the basic teachings       that most Christians believe.
Lewis                 also wrote an amusing book about temptation called The Screwtape         Letters, popular on both sides of the Atlantic. The novel, cast in the         form of a correspondence         between a senior and a junior devil, offered a fresh angle on Christian         belief. Screwtape landed Lewis on the cover of Time magazine.
“Jack” Lewis also tried his hand at fiction, quite successfully.
Long                 a lover of adventure stories, he wrote three widely read novels                 (The   Space Trilogy) about interplanetary travel. These space travel narratives   were also           about redemption, partly inspired by Lewis’s reading of John           Milton’s Paradise Lost. The Chronicles of Narnia is a series           of seven tales for children inspired by Lewis’s interest in myth           and fairy tale. Written with an underlying Christian theme, the Chronicles           have been enjoyed by children and adults for generations.
How                 did Lewis, who was essentially a professor of English literature,             become such an influential writer? C.S.                 Lewis was raised on books. Wide reading shaped his thought from                 childhood onwards. He had                   a vivid imagination and a broad education               in ancient and             medieval literature.
As                 a young man, Lewis was agnostic—possibly even an atheist— though                 he had been raised as a Christian. After serving in World                 War I,                 he returned to Oxford                 to teach, and there he experienced a religious conversion. His                 religious quest was stirred in part by literature and vigorous                 use of the intellect.                 He was partly influenced by friends at Oxford who were thoughtful                 believers, among them J.R.R. Tolkien.
Because of his conversion experience, Lewis turned his creative                 energy toward Christian writing. Many of his books were attempts                 to answer                 his own nagging                 questions. The Problem of Pain took up the perennial                 question of how God, if he is good, permits suffering. Miracles examined                 questions                 about divine                 intervention                 and supernatural events. Lewis also wrote two treatments of his                 own conversion—The Pilgrim’s Regress, in                 which he attempted                 a modern narrative inspired by John Bunyan; and Surprised                 by Joy: The Shape                 of My Early Life, which traced his own pursuit                 of faith in a strongly literary vein, describing how books and                 events                 had converged to bring him to his knees. Lewis became a faithful                 member                 of the Church of             England and developed a strong spiritual life.
Friendship—especially                   male friendship—was vital to Lewis. Together with his                   brother Warren, a former military man and a writer,                   C.S. Lewis took                   part in                   a literary circle known as “The Inklings.” Over                   decades this group met to share their works in progress. Such                   works as                   Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were                   first read at the Inklings. Many of these scholars                   and writers had a common view of literature and faith. One                   important member of the Inklings was the writer and editor                   Charles Williams.                   Williams was a                   poet and an authority on Milton and Dante. He also wrote a             series of remarkable novels about Christian faith.
Another                 of Lewis’s ventures was the Socratic Club, in which                     he argued questions of faith with any atheists who were rash                     enough to debate him. In his personal life, Lewis had two important domestic alliances.                     For many years he lived with and helped support Mrs. Jane               Moore, the mother                     of his                     friend “Paddy” Moore,                     who had been his comrade in World War I. When Paddy died                     in combat, Lewis fulfilled his promise to care for Paddy’s                     mother and sister. Lewis and the Moores shared a household                     near Oxford. Eventually Warren                     Lewis lived with his brother             as well. (Lewis also maintained rooms in college.)
Late                 in life, after Mrs. Moore’s death, Lewis became involved                       with an American divorcée, Helen Joy Davidman. Their                       romantic friendship and clandestine                       marriage are dramatized in the play Shadowlands (also                       a television drama and a film). Speaking of his marriage,                       Lewis told his longtime friend                       Nevill Coghill: “I                       never expected to have, in my sixties, the happiness that             passed me by in my twenties.”
Joy’s death from                         cancer shattered that happiness. Lewis captured his agony                         in a touching memoir, A Grief Observed. The influence                         of their marriage                         is also found in his book, The Four Loves, which he dedicated                         to his late wife.
Lewis died at his home, "The Kilns," in Headington Quarry,                         near Oxford, on November 22, 1963, after a brief illness.                         On his                         gravestone is a line from                         King Lear—one of his mother’s favorites: “Men must                         endure their going hence.”