Which C.S. Lewis book was published in 1961 under the title A Grief Observed?

C.S. Lewis’s 1961 book A Grief Observed was published under that title. It records his thoughts and emotional struggle after the death of his wife, Joy Davidman.

Lewis originally published the book under the pseudonym N.W. Clerk. The disguise helped him write privately about bereavement without immediately placing his personal experience under the public spotlight. Later editions identified Lewis as the author and used his name on the cover.

The book is written as a series of reflections rather than as a conventional autobiography or systematic theological argument. Lewis questions, protests, and revisits his understanding of suffering, prayer, and divine silence. It is therefore distinct from The Problem of Pain, an earlier work that discusses suffering in a more formal apologetic framework. A Grief Observed is often read for its direct account of mourning and its willingness to leave difficult questions unresolved.