CLIVE STAPLES LEWIS November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963

C. S. “Jack” Lewis Biography

The Beginning of Jack  Born Clive Staples Lewis on November 29, 1898  Belfast, Northern Ireland

Family  Father: Albert James Lewis ( )  Mother: Flora Augusta Hamilton Lewis ( )  Brother: Warren Hamilton Lewis, born June 16, 1895

Childhood  1908  Aug. 23: His mother died of cancer  Jack and Warnie sent to Wynyard School in England  Jack suffered from serious respiratory difficulties  Attended Campbell College Belfast

Schooling   Studied at Cherbourg School, Malvern England  evidenced an increasing affection for "Northernness“  during this time, he abandoned his childhood Christian faith  1916  Won scholarship to University College, Oxford.

1917  A student at University College, Oxford from April 26 until September  Enlisted in the British army during World War I and billeted in Keble College, Oxford, for officer's training  Roommate was Edward Courtenay Francis "Paddy" Moore ( )  Jack was commissioned an officer in the 3rd Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry, on September 25 and reached the front line in the Somme Valley in France on his 19th birthday

Oxford University Where Jack was billeted during training. Keble College

Oxford University The courtyard of Keble College Keble College

1918  On April 15, Lewis was wounded during the Battle of Arras  He recuperated and returned to duty in October, being assigned to Ludgerhall, Andover, England  He was discharged in December 1918  Paddy Moore, was killed in battle and buried in the field just south of Peronne, France

1919  The February issue of Reveille contained “Death in Battle,” Lewis’s first publication in other than school magazines.  From January 1919 until June 1924, he resumed his studies at University College, Oxford

1920  Mrs. Janie King Moore ( ) and her daughter, Maureen, moved to Oxford  Lewis lived with the Moores from June 1921 onward  In August 1930, they moved to Hillsboro, Western Road, Headington  October 1930, Mrs. Moore, Jack, and Major Lewis purchased The Kilns jointly  title to the property solely in the name of Mrs. Moore  two brothers holding rights of life tenancy  Major Lewis retired from the military and joined them at The Kilns in 1932

1931: Rebirth of Christianity  September, Lewis had a long talk on Christianity with J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson.  Lewis recorded the next day’s events in Surprised by Joy  “When we [Warnie and Jack] set out [by motorcycle to the Whipsnade Zoo] I did not believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did.”

1933: The Inklings  The fall term marked the beginning “The Inklings”  Members included J.R.R. Tolkien, Warnie, Hugo Dyson, Charles Williams, Dr. Robert Havard, Owen Barfield, Neville Coghill and others.

1956  April 23, entered into a civil marriage with Joy Davidman at the Oxford Registry Office for the purpose of conferring upon her the status of British citizenship in order to prevent her threatened deportation by British migration authorities.  Joy had two sons: David and Douglas Gresham

21 March 1957  Married Joy in church ceremony at her hospital bed.  Joy's death was thought to be imminent because of bone cancer. Joy had converted to Christianity from Judaism in 1948 partly under the influence of Lewis's books and her divorce in 1953 due to her husband's desertion.

1958  Throughout 1957, Joy experienced an extraordinary recovery from her near terminal bout with cancer.  In July of 1958, Jack and Joy went to Ireland for a 10-day holiday.  On August 19 and 20, he made tapes of ten talks on The Four Loves in London.  Lewis was elected an Honorary Fellow of University College, Oxford.

1960  Subsequent to learning of the return of Joy's cancer, Jack and Joy, together with Roger Lancelyn Green and his wife, Joy, went to Greece from April 3 to April 14  Joy died on July 13 at the age of 45, not long after their return from Greece

1963: The Golden Anniversary  Lewis died at 5:30 p.m. at The Kilns, one week before his 65th birthday on Friday, November 22  He had resigned his position at Cambridge during the summer and was then elected an Honorary Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge.  His grave is in the yard of Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry, Oxford.  He died the same day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated and Aldous Huxley died.

Author, Christian, Scholar The Trinity of Jack

Three Jacks  Owen Barfield said of Jack  “C. S. Lewis could be broken down into three very different and distinct C. S. Lewises—the first was the role he played as a distinguished Oxford scholar and teacher, the second as a popular author of science fiction and children's novels, and the third as a highly religious spokesman and writer of Christian apologetics.”

Author  Space Trilogy  The Space Trilogy or "Ransom Trilogy" novels address the dehumanizing trends that Lewis and his fellow scholars witnessed in modern science fiction  Chronicles of Narnia  The novels depict the adventures of a group of children who find themselves in a magical and mystical land called Narnia  clearly reflect Lewis's love and knowledge of Greek mythology, Roman mythology, Celtic mythology and traditional English and Irish fairytales

Christian  became widely known for his Christian apologetics  Because of his struggles with religion, Lewis desired to present the concept of Christianity with as much reason and logic as possible  His career went beyond the pen as he became a lecturer and broadcaster

Scholar  served as a teaching fellow from Magdalen College, Oxford from  he worked at the University of Cambridge and Magdalene College, Cambridge  He became the first Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University  concentrated on the later Middle Ages and the use of allegory during that time period

The Magic within a Wardrobe Narnia

This statue lives in Belfast, C. S. Lewis’s birthplace. Jack and the Wardrobe