Which 1919 poetry collection did C.S. Lewis publish under the name Clive Hamilton?

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C.S. Lewis published the 1919 poetry collection Spirits in Bondage under the name Clive Hamilton.

Spirits in Bondage was Lewis's first published book. It appeared while he was still a young man and reflected the influence of his experiences during and after the First World War. The poems often express skepticism, grief, and hostility toward conventional religious explanations, perspectives that differ sharply from Lewis's later Christian writings.

The pseudonym combined Lewis's first name with the surname Hamilton, which came from his mother's family. He later became much better known by the initials C.S. Lewis and the nickname Jack.

Readers sometimes confuse Spirits in Bondage with Dymer, another early poetic work published in 1926 under the same pseudonym. Dymer is a narrative poem, whereas Spirits in Bondage is a collection of shorter poems. Lewis's early poetry is useful for tracing the intellectual and spiritual changes that preceded his conversion to Christianity.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Oct. 2026

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