What was the title of C.S. Lewis’s autobiographical book published in 1955?

C.S. Lewis’s autobiographical book published in 1955 was Surprised by Joy.

Surprised by Joy traces Lewis’s intellectual and spiritual development from childhood through his conversion to Christianity. The title refers to a powerful feeling of longing or imaginative delight that Lewis associated with experiences of literature, nature, and myth.

The book discusses his early life in Belfast, education in England, service in the First World War, studies at Oxford, and friendships that influenced his thinking. It also describes his movement from atheism toward belief in God and later Christianity, although it is an intellectual and spiritual memoir rather than a complete chronological autobiography.

A common mix-up is A Grief Observed, which Lewis wrote after the death of his wife, Joy Davidman. That later book is a record of grief and questioning, not the broad account of Lewis’s earlier life presented in Surprised by Joy.