What was the title of C.S. Lewis’s 1961 book about mourning Joy Davidman?

A Grief Observed was C.S. Lewis’s 1961 book about mourning Joy Davidman.

Lewis wrote the book after Davidman died of cancer in 1960. It was first published under the pseudonym N.W. Clerk, a choice that allowed him to express intensely personal reactions without immediately presenting the work as his own public testimony. The book takes the form of brief reflections rather than a conventional chronological memoir.

Lewis confronts sorrow, anger, loneliness, memory, and doubts about religious consolation. Its tone differs sharply from the confident apologetic style associated with some of his earlier Christian works. The book’s honesty has made it influential among readers writing about bereavement.

A Grief Observed is sometimes mistaken for a biography of Joy Davidman, but it is primarily Lewis’s record of his own grief. Surprised by Joy is the separate memoir about his early life and spiritual development, and its title does not refer to Davidman.