C.S. Lewis’s A Grief Observed was first published under the pseudonym N.W. Clerk.
Lewis wrote the book after the death of his wife, Joy Davidman, from cancer in 1960. It records his immediate experience of bereavement, including anger, confusion, loneliness, and questions about religious faith. The work is notably more raw and personal than many of his earlier apologetic books.
The pseudonym initially helped Lewis avoid having readers approach the book as a famous author’s public statement. Friends eventually recognized its authorship, and later editions were published under Lewis’s own name.
The book is sometimes confused with a conventional biography of Davidman. It is instead a short, reflective account of Lewis’s grieving process, written in the form of spiritual and emotional observation.