What was the pseudonym used for C.S. Lewis’s 1961 book about grief?

C.S. Lewis used the pseudonym N.W. Clerk for A Grief Observed, his 1961 book about grief. The work reflects on the death of his wife, Joy Davidman, who died in 1960.

Lewis initially published the book anonymously because he did not want readers to approach it primarily as the testimony of a famous author. The pseudonym concealed his identity for a time, although the authorship later became widely known.

A Grief Observed is written in an unusually personal and sometimes anguished style. Lewis questions his own assumptions, describes the disorienting effects of bereavement, and considers how grief affects religious belief. It is not a conventional biography of Davidman or a systematic theological treatise.

The title is also sometimes discussed alongside Lewis’s earlier Christian apologetics, but its purpose is different. It records an individual experience of mourning rather than presenting an argument intended to explain Christianity to a general audience.