What was C.S. Lewis’s pen name for several early books of poetry?

C.S. Lewis used the pen name Clive Hamilton for several early poetry books.

Lewis published Spirits in Bondage in 1919 under the name Clive Hamilton. He used the same pseudonym for Dymer, a long narrative poem published in 1926. The name combined “Clive,” a nickname connected with his childhood, and “Hamilton,” his mother’s maiden name.

These books appeared before Lewis became widely known for Christian apologetics, literary criticism, and fiction. Spirits in Bondage reflects the disillusionment and moral questioning associated with the period after the First World War, while Dymer presents a more elaborate mythic narrative.

The pseudonym can be confused with Lewis’s initials, C.S., which stood for Clive Staples. “Clive Hamilton” was a publishing name, not an alternative legal name and not the name under which his best-known later works appeared.