Which medieval-literature study earned C.S. Lewis the 1937 Hawthornden Prize?

The Allegory of Love earned C.S. Lewis the 1937 Hawthornden Prize.

Published in 1936, The Allegory of Love is a scholarly study of medieval and Renaissance traditions of allegorical love literature. Lewis examines how writers represented love through personification, symbolism, and elaborate literary conventions. The book helped establish him as an important literary scholar before he became famous for his fiction and Christian apologetics.

The work covers authors and traditions including Ovidian influence, courtly love, and the medieval allegorical poem. Its argument is literary and historical rather than a retelling of one single romance. The Hawthornden Prize recognized the book in 1937.

Lewis later wrote other major works of literary criticism, including The Discarded Image and A Preface to Paradise Lost. Those titles are sometimes confused with The Allegory of Love because all three deal with historical literature, but only The Allegory of Love received the 1937 Hawthornden recognition.