Which C.S. Lewis work is his autobiography of conversion and imagination?

Surprised by Joy is C.S. Lewis’s autobiography of conversion and imagination.

Published in 1955, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life recounts Lewis’s childhood, education, intellectual development, and movement from atheism toward Christianity. The book ends around the point of his conversion, so it is primarily an account of his early life rather than a complete biography of his adult career.

The title comes from Lewis’s idea of “Joy,” a fleeting longing or intense desire triggered by experiences such as nature, literature, and myth. He distinguished this experience from ordinary happiness and treated it as an important clue in his spiritual and intellectual journey.

The book is often confused with A Grief Observed, which concerns Lewis’s response to the death of his wife, Joy Davidman. It is also different from Mere Christianity, a work of Christian apologetics developed from wartime radio talks. Surprised by Joy focuses on the formation of the author himself and the experiences that shaped his later writing.