C.S. Lewis used the pseudonym N.W. Clerk when A Grief Observed was first published.
A Grief Observed appeared in 1961 under the name N.W. Clerk. Lewis wrote the book after the death of his wife, Joy Davidman, from cancer in 1960. It records his anger, doubt, loneliness, and attempts to understand suffering after bereavement.
The pseudonym was chosen partly to shield Lewis from readers who might otherwise approach the book as a famous author’s public statement. When the work was later republished, it was identified openly as Lewis’s. Its direct emotional style differs from the more systematic tone of works such as Mere Christianity.
N.W. Clerk should not be confused with Clive Hamilton, the pen name Lewis used for early poetry, including Dymer. “Clerk” also evokes a learned writer or scholar, but the important bibliographic fact is that it was the name printed on the book’s first edition.