What was C.S. Lewis’s first book published under his own name?

C.S. Lewis’s first book published under his own name was The Pilgrim’s Regress. It appeared in 1933 and was subtitled An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason and Romanticism.

The book follows John, a character who travels through an imagined landscape while confronting competing philosophies, desires, and intellectual arguments. Its title deliberately recalls John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, but Lewis’s work addresses modern doubts and ideologies rather than simply retelling Bunyan’s plot.

The Pilgrim’s Regress came after Lewis’s return to Christian belief and before his best-known apologetic works. Lewis had already published poetry as Clive Hamilton, including Spirits in Bondage in 1919 and Dymer in 1926.

Readers may call The Problem of Pain his first Christian book because it became more widely known. Bibliographically, The Pilgrim’s Regress is earlier and is specifically recognized as the first book to carry the name C.S. Lewis.