C.S. Lewis first published A Grief Observed under the pen name N.W. Clerk.
A Grief Observed appeared in 1961 under the name N.W. Clerk. Lewis used the pseudonym because the book records his raw response to the death of his wife, Joy Davidman, from cancer in 1960. The disguise allowed him to present the work without immediately placing his private grief under his public name.
The book is structured as a series of reflections rather than a conventional memoir. Lewis questions his own beliefs, describes anger and loneliness, and examines how grief changes perception. Its frankness surprised some readers, especially those familiar with Lewis primarily as a confident Christian apologist.
The pseudonym was eventually revealed, and later editions appeared under Lewis’s name. A Grief Observed is often discussed alongside The Problem of Pain, but the two books have different purposes: the earlier work treats suffering intellectually, while A Grief Observed documents grief as a lived experience. “N.W. Clerk” is therefore the specific publication pseudonym, not Lewis’s childhood nickname, Jack.