C.S. Lewis published early poetry under the pseudonym Clive Hamilton.
Lewis used Clive Hamilton for Spirits in Bondage, published in 1919, and Dymer, published in 1926. The name combined his first name, Clive, with Hamilton, a family name associated with his mother’s side. These early poems appeared before his major Christian apologetic works and Narnia fiction.
Lewis was also widely known among friends as “Jack,” a nickname derived from a childhood association with a dog named Jacksie. That nickname is not the same as Clive Hamilton, the literary pseudonym used on his early poetry. Later, Lewis published most of his major books under the initials C.S. Lewis.
N.W. Clerk was a different pseudonym: it was used for A Grief Observed in 1961. Distinguishing these names helps prevent confusion among Lewis’s poetry, personal nickname, and late reflections on bereavement.