The Life of C.S. Lewis

Who is C.S. Lewis? Today we will examine together who the man behind the Chronicles of Narnia truly is.

C.S. Lewis was born November 29, 1898 in Belfast, Ireland. His father was a lawyer and his mother was a mathematician who taught Lewis and his brother Warnie. Lewis’ full name was Clive Staples Lewis. As a kid, he did not like this horrid name, so he changed it to Jack. His mother died of cancer when he was nine years of age. His father sent him to a boarding school. His father was very demanding and did not understand how to raise children, and the brothers did not like their dad’s parenting skills. After his mother died, Jack left the true faith of Christianity.

Later, Jack studied under a tutor, the same one that his brother and father had studied under. He learned to read the classics in Greek and Latin. He was also greatly inspired by George MacDonald. He was studying for the Oxford exam, but he failed. He tried again and failed. Then he went off to serve in World War One. The experience influenced him greatly. He had a traumatizing time.

After the war, Oxford let soldiers enroll for many former students had died. Jack became a scholar and then a teacher at Oxford. He made friends with J.R.R. Tolkien and a club of writers called the Inklings that included Tolkien and Hugo Dyson. He reconverted to Christianity with the help of Tolkien and Dyson and they had a deep friendship.

After his conversion, World War Two overtook Europe. A few of the Inklings joined the war effort, and some of the younger Inklings enlisted as soldiers. Christopher Tolkien, the son of J.R.R. Tolkien, was one of these. Lewis met another great friend and Inkling, Charles Williams, during this time.

During and after the war, Lewis wrote many books including The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy. He took a position as professor at Cambridge since Oxford would not promote him. He married Joy Davidson in his fifties. A few years later, Joy got cancer and died. Lewis was greatly grieved and wrote a book on his sorrow. He died of kidney failure one week before his sixty-fifth birthday.

C.S. Lewis, or Jack, was a famous scholar, author, theologian, and Inkling.