Which C.S. Lewis book was first published in 1938 and begins his space trilogy?

Out of the Silent Planet was the C.S. Lewis book first published in 1938 that begins his space trilogy. It introduces philologist Elwin Ransom, who is abducted from Earth and taken to Mars, called Malacandra by its inhabitants.

The novel combines planetary adventure with Christian ideas about language, morality, and humanity’s place in creation. Lewis wrote it partly as a response to what he considered the spiritually bleak direction of some modern science fiction. The book was published by John Lane, The Bodley Head.

The two later volumes are Perelandra, published in 1943, and That Hideous Strength, published in 1945. Although the trilogy is often called the Space Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy, its books differ in setting and tone. Out of the Silent Planet is therefore not merely a Narnia story in space; it is Lewis’s first major science-fiction novel.