What name did C.S. Lewis use for the narrator of A Grief Observed?

C.S. Lewis used the name N.W. Clerk for the narrator of A Grief Observed.

A Grief Observed was published in 1961 under the pseudonym N.W. Clerk. Lewis wrote the book after the death of his wife, Joy Davidman, from cancer in 1960. It presents an intensely personal record of grief, doubt, anger, and the struggle to reconcile suffering with religious belief.

The pseudonym initially allowed Lewis to publish without immediately exposing the book as his own account. The work’s first edition therefore did not openly identify him on the title page. Later editions and public knowledge connected N.W. Clerk with Lewis, and the book is now routinely catalogued under his name.

The pseudonym is sometimes confused with the narrator’s status as a fictional character. The text is not a novel in the ordinary sense; it is a short, reflective work based on Lewis’s experience. Its raw tone also distinguishes it from the more formal apologetic style of Mere Christianity.