Which C.S. Lewis memoir describes his grief after the death of his wife Joy Davidman?

The story behind the answer

A Grief Observed describes C.S. Lewis’s grief after the death of his wife, Joy Davidman.

Lewis published the book in 1961 under the pseudonym N.W. Clerk. It is a series of reflections on bereavement, doubt, anger, memory, and the difficulty of speaking honestly about God after a devastating loss. Joy Davidman died of cancer in 1960.

The book was initially read without the public knowing that Lewis was its author. Lewis later allowed his identity to become known, and the work became one of his most personal books. It is not a conventional life story covering his entire career.

Readers sometimes confuse it with Surprised by Joy, Lewis’s autobiography of his intellectual and spiritual development. A Grief Observed is narrower and more immediate, concentrating on the experience of mourning after Joy’s death.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Oct. 2026

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