From Belfast to the Wardrobe: Jack's life in ten riddles and its echoes in Narnia

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• Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963), known as « Jack », was born in Belfast and died near Oxford.
• Specialist in Medieval and Renaissance literature, first at Oxford and then at Cambridge.
• Each stage of his life left a mark in the Chronicles: grief, war, his teachers, his friends.
• Author of about forty books, still sold by the millions.

1. Why an Irishman?

Clive Staples Lewis was born on November 29, 1898, in Belfast, into a Protestant family of the Irish middle class. His father was a lawyer; his mother, the daughter of a clergyman, held degrees in mathematics and logic, which was rare for a woman at the time. He would always feel Irish, even though he spent almost his entire adult life in England.

Narnian echo: The green hills of County Down and the grey sea of Belfast Lough nourished his imaginary landscapes. He is often credited with a phrase according to which the Rostrevor region was his idea of Narnia (the exact source remains to be identified).

2. Why « Jack »?

At around four years old, after the death of his dog Jacksie, young Clive announced that he would henceforth be called Jacksie. The name shortened to « Jack » and stuck. His friends, his brother, and his wife called him this; the initials « C.S. » were reserved for his books.

Narnian echo: In the Chronicles, naming is a powerful act. It is no coincidence that the child who chose his own name would become the author of a world where Aslan calls everyone by their own.

3. A childhood split in two?

Happy at first, in a house full of books, Little Lea, with his brother Warren, known as Warnie, who was three years older. With him, he invented a land of dressed-up animals, Boxen. Then disaster struck: his mother died of cancer in August 1908. Jack was nine years old. His devastated father sent him away to boarding school in England, to a harsh headmaster. Lewis would later say that all solid happiness had then vanished from his life.

Narnian echo: A boy whose mother is ill and who wants to save her is Digory in The Magician's Nephew. And the talking animals have their distant ancestor in the attic of Boxen, even though Lewis refused to see it as the origin of Narnia.

4. How does one become a professor when one hates school?

Thanks to a demanding tutor, William Kirkpatrick, who taught him to reason mercilessly and to read Greek. Admitted to Oxford, Lewis first went to war in 1917, was wounded in France in April 1918, and then returned to his studies, earning top marks in three subjects. From 1925 to 1954, he was a fellow and tutor in English literature at Magdalen College, Oxford. In 1954, Cambridge created a professorship for him in Medieval and Renaissance literature.

Narnian echo: The old professor who welcomes the children into his large house and chides them for not knowing how to reason may be named Kirkpatrick: Digory Kirke. And the children evacuated from London come straight from the war of 1939 (see our article on the two wars).

5. How does an atheist become a believer?

Slowly. Lewis lost his childhood faith at around thirteen and became a convinced atheist. His readings (George MacDonald, Chesterton), his friendships (Tolkien, Barfield, Dyson), and his own intellectual honesty gradually brought him back to God in 1929, and then to Christianity in September 1931. He became a lay member of the Church of England and always adhered to what all Christians share.

Narnian echo: The decisive conversation with Tolkien was about myths. For Lewis, the story of the god who dies and comes back is a myth that became reality. This is what he imagines again, differently, on the Stone Table.

6. What made him famous?

Three things. During World War II, his talks on the BBC about faith made him a familiar voice in the country. His book of letters, The Screwtape Letters (1942), was a worldwide success. And between 1950 and 1956, he published the seven Chronicles of Narnia.

Narnian echo: The mischievous narrator of The Screwtape Letters, who comments and draws the reader in, is almost exactly the same as the voice that tells the Chronicles.

7. Who were his friends?

Friendship was central to his life. Arthur Greeves, a neighbor from Belfast, was a lifelong confidant; Owen Barfield, his favorite sparring partner; J.R.R. Tolkien, who helped him to believe and to whom he gave the courage to finish The Lord of the Rings; Charles Williams, the mystical friend. Together, they formed the Inklings, a circle where manuscripts were read aloud. His brother Warnie shared his home.

Narnian echo: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is dedicated to Lucy Barfield, the adopted daughter of Owen and goddaughter of Lewis.

8. Why did he marry so late?

He first lived for over thirty years with Janie Moore, the mother of a comrade killed in the war, and her daughter Maureen. Then, in 1956, he married Joy Davidman, an American writer, to allow her to stay in England. When he discovered she had cancer, their friendship turned into great love. Joy died in 1960. Lewis wrote about his grief in A Grief Observed; their story inspired the film Shadowlands.

Narnian echo: The Horse and His Boy is dedicated to Joy’s two sons, David and Douglas Gresham.

9. What kind of man was he?

A large red-faced man, poorly dressed, with a loud voice, who loved beer, long walks, river baths, and discussions that lasted until dawn. A formidable polemicist, he was also very generous: he donated a large share of his royalties and personally answered thousands of letters from strangers, including children.

Narnian echo: His answers to children who wrote to him about Aslan, Susan, or Reepicheep are gathered in Letters from the Pastors of the World.

10. Why did his death go unnoticed?

Suffering from heart and kidney disease, he resigned from Cambridge in the summer of 1963. He died at his home, the Kilns, near Oxford, on November 22, 1963, a week before his sixty-fifth birthday. The same day, John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas: the news overshadowed everything else. Fifty years later, in 2013, a stone was placed in his name in Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey, alongside those of Shakespeare, Dickens, and Jane Austen.

To continue

A detailed biography in two parts and a timeline tell the story of his life in order. If you want to read Lewis, our page « What to Read by Lewis After Narnia » will help you choose a first book.

## See also - [Biography of C.S. Lewis (1): from Belfast to Oxford, 1898-1931](https://narnia-guide.com/lewis/biographie-de-cs-lewis-1-1898-1931/) - [Biography of C.S. Lewis (2): from the Inklings to Narnia, 1932-1963](https://narnia-guide.com/lewis/biographie-de-cs-lewis-2-1932-1963/) - [Timeline of C.S. Lewis's life](https://narnia-guide.com/lewis/chronologie-de-la-vie-de-cs-lewis/) - [C.S. Lewis, much more than Narnia](https://narnia-guide.com/lewis/) - [What to read by Lewis after Narnia](https://narnia-guide.com/lewis/que-lire-de-lewis-apres-narnia/) - [True, false or nuanced? Twelve enduring legends about Jack, examined](https://narnia-guide.com/lewis/vrai-faux-ou-a-nuancer/) - [In brief: Eight addresses, eight books – the map of Lewis's works](https://narnia-guide.com/lewis/huit-adresses-huit-livres/) - [From the trenches of Artois to the evacuees at the Kilns: how two wars opened the wardrobe](https://narnia-guide.com/lewis/des-tranchees-aux-enfants-evacues/) - [Boxen](https://narnia-guide.com/lewis/oeuvres/boxen/) - [Letters to Narnia: C.S. Lewis writes to children](https://narnia-guide.com/lewis/oeuvres/lettres-aux-enfants/) - [The Inklings, a literary club](https://narnia-guide.com/lewis/les-inklings/) - [Joy Davidman and "Till We Have Faces"](https://narnia-guide.com/lewis/joy-davidman-et-les-ombres-du-coeur/) - [Digory Kirke](https://narnia-guide.com/personnages/digory-kirke/) - [Seven families of books: Lewis's works sorted by genre](https://narnia-guide.com/lewis/oeuvres/)