What pseudonym did C.S. Lewis use for his early poetry?

C.S. Lewis used the pseudonym Clive Hamilton for his early poetry.

Lewis published his first poetry collection, Spirits in Bondage, in 1919 under the name Clive Hamilton. He used the same pseudonym for Dymer, a longer narrative poem published in 1926. “Clive” came from his given name, while “Hamilton” was his mother’s maiden name.

Lewis’s later works appeared under C.S. Lewis, the name by which he became famous. He used other forms of anonymity as well: A Grief Observed was first published in 1961 under the name N.W. Clerk. That later pseudonym served a different purpose, allowing Lewis to write about grief with some privacy. Clive Hamilton should therefore not be confused with N.W. Clerk, nor with fictional or historical figures who influenced Lewis’s literary imagination.