What was the title of C.S. Lewis’s 1955 memoir about his childhood and early life?

C.S. Lewis’s 1955 memoir about his childhood and early life is Surprised by Joy.

The book traces Lewis’s intellectual and spiritual development from childhood through his education and experiences in the First World War. It describes the books, ideas, friendships, and moments of intense longing that influenced his movement toward Christianity.

Its title comes from Lewis’s use of “joy” for a particular kind of sudden, piercing desire associated with beauty, imagination, and the sense of something beyond ordinary experience. He distinguishes this feeling from simple happiness or pleasure, making the memoir both autobiographical and reflective.

Surprised by Joy is not a complete account of Lewis’s entire life. It ends before the period of his greatest public fame as a Christian author and Narnia creator. A Grief Observed instead concerns his experience after the death of his wife, Joy Davidman.