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

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

The book was first published in 1961, less than a year after the death of Lewis’s wife, Joy Davidman. Written as a series of reflections and questions, it records the emotional and spiritual disorientation of bereavement rather than presenting a conventional theological argument.

Lewis initially used a pseudonym because he wanted the book to be read without the expectations attached to his public identity. Some readers and friends did not immediately realize that N.W. Clerk was Lewis. The authorship became widely known later.

A Grief Observed is often connected with Lewis’s Christian apologetics, but its tone is notably personal and unsettled. It should also be distinguished from Surprised by Joy, Lewis’s autobiographical account of his early life and conversion.