What was the title of C.S. Lewis’s 1955 autobiography about his spiritual journey?

C.S. Lewis’s 1955 autobiography about his spiritual journey is Surprised by Joy. The book traces his childhood, education, literary influences, wartime experiences, and gradual movement from atheism toward Christianity.

Lewis explains that his idea of “joy” was not simply happiness or pleasure. He used the term for intense experiences of longing that seemed to point beyond themselves. Encounters with Norse mythology, George MacDonald, William Morris, and other writers helped shape the imaginative path described in the book.

The autobiography ends with Lewis’s conversion to Christianity, but it is not a complete account of every later religious development. A common mix-up is A Grief Observed, which is a much later reflection on bereavement after Joy Davidman’s death. Surprised by Joy instead focuses mainly on the earlier intellectual and spiritual history that led Lewis to faith.