What was the title of C.S. Lewis’s 1961 book about grief?

C.S. Lewis’s 1961 book about grief is A Grief Observed. It records his emotional and spiritual response after the death of his wife, Joy Davidman, from cancer in 1960.

Lewis originally published the work under the pseudonym N.W. Clerk. The disguise helped him write privately about bereavement without immediately presenting the book as a personal account. The author’s identity became known later, and subsequent editions were published under Lewis’s name.

The short book is organized as a series of reflections rather than a conventional autobiography. Lewis questions his own beliefs, describes anger and loneliness, and examines how grief changes memory and perception. Its candid tone distinguishes it from his more systematic Christian apologetic works.

A Grief Observed is often confused with Surprised by Joy. Surprised by Joy is Lewis’s 1955 autobiography, while A Grief Observed concerns the period following Davidman’s death and appeared near the end of Lewis’s life.