C.S. Lewis Biography
By: Justin Duckett
Life:
C.S. Lewis was born Clive Staples Lewis on November 29th in Belfast, Ireland. He was the second son of Albert Lewis, who was a lawyer, and Flora Hamilton Lewis. He had a brother by the name of Warren Lewis. C.S. preferred to be called Jack. His childhood was relatively happy and he barely had any cares. You could say it was carefree. In 1905, his family moved to their new home, the Little Lea, on the outskirts of Belfast. Then, in 1908, his mother sadly died of cancer on August 23rd, which was her husband’s birthday. This put Clive in a depressed mood. He was never as happy as he used to be, and he never had as much fun. After that, him and his brother attended Wynyard School in England. In 1910, he attended Campbell College Belfast for only one term due to serious respiratory problems. From 1911 to 1913, Clive studied at Cherbourg School in Malvern England. He remained remarkably poor in mathematics, unlike his mother, but showed an increasing affection for mythology. This is when he abandoned his childhood Christian faith.
He began to show interests in reading as well. One of his favorite novels growing up was “Treasure Island”, written by Robert Louis Stevenson. Then from 1914 to 1916, he studied French, German, Latin, Greek, and Italian under the private tuition of W.T. Kirkpatrick. He won a scholarship to attend the University of Oxford in 1916. But, in 1917, he volunteered to serve for the military in World War 1 to fight in the muddy trenches of war in 1917. He became wounded in 1918, and his friend was killed in battle. He later resumed his studies at Oxford from 1919 to 1924, and Lewis became a philosophy tutor at Oxford in 1924. In 1929, Clive became a theist. He became a great writer and wrote many novels, his first being The Pilgrim’s Regress. He modeled his friend, J.R.R. Tolkien, who was the writer of The Hobbit. J.R.R. told Clive to stop writing children’s stories. He didn't listen and wrote the first Narnia novel, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and continued to write the series of Narnia novels. In 1937, he received the Gollancz Memorial Prize for Literature. After many years, he met Joy Davidson and married her on the 23rd of April, 1956. On November 22nd, 1963, he died of a heart attack after suffering several illnesses, including kidney problems.
Works of C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis has written many wonderful stories. He has also written many poems. One of his first books he wrote after becoming Christian was called The Pilgrim’s Regress, in 1933. Clive has also written a few series, including the Space Trilogy novels and the Chronicles of Narnia. Probably his most famous series, the Chronicles of Narnia, was written between 1949 and 1954. This series has sold over 100 million copies around the world. Mr. Lewis has written many other great novels, including The Screwtape Letters. He has also written a lot of poems, including Dymer, Launcelot, The Nameless Isle, and The Queen of Drum.