What pseudonym did C. S. Lewis use for A Grief Observed?

C. S. Lewis used the pseudonym N. W. Clerk for A Grief Observed.

The book was published in 1961, shortly after the death of Lewis’s wife, Joy Davidman, from cancer. It draws on four notebooks in which Lewis recorded his anger, loneliness, doubt, and changing understanding of grief.

Lewis chose a pseudonym because he wanted readers to encounter the book without immediately connecting it to the famous Christian author. The initials are usually printed as “N. W.,” while some editions and references render the name as “N.W. Clerk.” Both forms identify the same pseudonym.

After Lewis’s death, later editions appeared under his own name. The book is often paired with The Problem of Pain, written about two decades earlier: that earlier work examines suffering intellectually, while A Grief Observed records Lewis confronting bereavement personally. The title’s indefinite article also emphasizes that this is one person’s experience, not a universal formula for mourning.