Which 1955 autobiography by C.S. Lewis describes his journey from atheism to Christianity?

Surprised by Joy is C.S. Lewis’s 1955 autobiography describing his intellectual and spiritual journey toward Christianity. The book traces his childhood imagination, education, wartime experiences, friendships, and changing beliefs.

The title refers to “joy,” a term Lewis used for an intense longing or desire that could be awakened by literature, nature, music, and memory. He did not treat joy as simple happiness. Instead, he presented it as a recurring experience of longing that pointed beyond the immediate object that produced it.

Lewis recounts his movement from childhood Christianity to atheism, then to belief in God and finally to Christianity. His story includes his studies at Oxford, service during the First World War, and conversations with writers including J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson.

Surprised by Joy is an autobiography, but it is not a complete day-by-day record of Lewis’s life. It concentrates on the formation of his ideas and faith. A Grief Observed, by contrast, is a later meditation on loss rather than a general account of his conversion.