Lewis, C. S.

Lewis, C. S. ( Clive Staples Lewis) (1898–1963), literary scholar, critic, and novelist, fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, 1925–54, and afterwards professor of medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge. His critical works include The Allegory of Love (1936) and English Literature in the Sixteenth Century (vol. iii in the Oxford History of English Literature, 1954). He is more widely known for his popular religious and moral writings, such as The Problem of Pain (1940), The Screwtape Letters (1940), and The Four Loves (1960). Out of the Silent Planet (1938) is the first of three science fiction novels. With The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (1950) he began a series of seven ‘Narnia’ stories for children. Surprised by Joy (1955) is his spiritual autobiography. ‘The Inklings’, a group of his friends, met in his Oxford rooms for many years to talk and read aloud their compositions.