Which memoir did C.S. Lewis publish in 1955 about his early life and conversion?

Surprised by Joy is the memoir C.S. Lewis published in 1955 about his early life, intellectual development, and movement toward Christianity. It is one of his principal autobiographical works.

The book explores Lewis’s experiences of “joy,” a powerful and elusive longing he associated with imaginative encounters, literature, nature, and ideas. It follows his education, service in the First World War, academic life, and eventual return to Christian belief. Lewis became a theist in 1930 and a Christian in 1931.

The title does not refer to a single happy event. It describes the sudden longing that Lewis considered a clue to a reality beyond ordinary satisfaction. A Grief Observed, published later, is a different book about bereavement after the death of his wife, Joy Davidman.