What title did C.S. Lewis give his 1955 autobiography?
Answer
Surprised by Joy
Answer
Surprised by Joy
C.S. Lewis titled his 1955 autobiography Surprised by Joy.
Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life recounts Lewis’s childhood, education, intellectual development, and movement from atheism toward Christianity. The title refers partly to Lewis’s idea of “joy,” a powerful, fleeting longing that he associated with imaginative experience and spiritual desire. It also echoes the name of the poet Joy Davidman, whom Lewis married the following year, although the title was chosen before their marriage.
The autobiography ends around Lewis’s conversion and does not cover his entire adult life. It is therefore different from a complete biography. A Grief Observed, published under a pseudonym in 1961, focuses on mourning after Davidman’s death rather than on Lewis’s early life. Surprised by Joy was published in 1955 by Geoffrey Bles.
Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026