Under what pseudonym was C.S. Lewis’s A Grief Observed first published?

C.S. Lewis’s A Grief Observed was first published under the pseudonym N.W. Clerk.

The book appeared in 1961, after the death of Lewis’s wife, Joy Davidman, from cancer. It is a series of intensely personal reflections on bereavement, anger, doubt, prayer, and the experience of trying to live with loss. Lewis used a pseudonym partly to create distance between his private grief and his public reputation as a Christian writer.

The disguise did not remain permanent. Later editions identified Lewis as the author, and the work became one of his most widely read discussions of suffering. Its direct, unsettled tone differs from the more systematic style of books such as Mere Christianity.

Readers sometimes mistake N.W. Clerk for one of Lewis’s earlier literary names. “Clive Hamilton” was the name used for some of his early poetry, whereas N.W. Clerk was specifically associated with this 1961 account of grief.