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Clive Staples Lewis (Eng. Clive Staples Lewis, November 29, 1898 — November 22, 1963) — an outstanding English and Irish writer, scholar and theologian. Known for his work on medieval literature and Christian apologetics, as well as fiction in the fantasy genre. One of the prominent representatives of the Oxford literary group «Inklings».
Biography
Born November 29, 1898 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the family of a lawyer, but lived most of his life in England.
After leaving school in 1917, he entered University College Oxford, but soon dropped out and was drafted into the British army as a junior officer. After being wounded in the First World War in 1918, he is demobilized and returns to the university, where he completes his studies.
In 1919, under the pseudonym Clive Hamilton (Clive Hamilton) publishes a collection of poems «The Oppressed Spirit» (Spirits in Bondage).
In 1923 he received a bachelor’s degree, later — a master’s degree and became a teacher of philology.
Between 1925 and 1954 he taught English and Literature at Magdalen College, Oxford.
In 1926, under the same pseudonym, Clive Hamilton published a collection of poems, Dymer.
In 1931 Lewis becomes a Christian. One September evening, Lewis has a long conversation about Christianity with J. R. R. Tolkien (a zealous Catholic) and Hugo Deason. (The conversation is recounted by Arthur Greaves under the title «They Stand Together»). This evening’s discussion was important to the next day’s event, which Lewis describes in «Overtaken by Joy»: came to the zoo, I believed.”
From 1933 to 1949, a circle of friends gathered around Lewis, called the Inklings (later a literary discussion group), of which Lewis’s friend, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, was also a member. The circle also includes Warren Lewis, Hugo Dyson, Charles Williams, Dr. Robert Haward, Owen Barfield, Weville Coghill, and others.
The Chronicles of Narnia were published between 1950 and 1955. The most striking works of this cycle are The Lion, the Witch and Wardrobe, The Magician’s Nephew and The Last Battle.
1952 — Lewis first meets Joy Davidman (his future wife), fifteen years his junior (1915-1960).
In 1954 he moved to Cambridge, where he taught English language and literature at Magdalen College, and in 1955 became a member of the British Academy.
In 1956, Lewis married American Joy Davidman, who was dying of cancer, and a year later she miraculously recovered.
In 1960, Lewis and Joy travel to Greece with friends, visiting Athens, Mycenae, Rhodes, Heracleion and Knossos. Joy died on July 13, shortly after returning from Greece.
In 1963, Clive Lewis retired from teaching due to heart problems and kidney disease.
He died on November 22 of the same year, not having lived a week before his sixty-fifth birthday. Lewis died the same day President Kennedy was assassinated and Aldous Huxley died. Until his death, he remained in his position at Cambridge and was elected an honorary fellow of Magdalen College. The grave of the writer is in the courtyard of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Headington Quarry, Oxford.
Bibliography
Fantasy
The Chronicles of Narnia cycle: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950), Prince Caspian (1951)
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952), The Silver Chair (1953), The Horse and His Boy (1954) , «The Magician’s Nephew» (The Magician’s Nephew, 1955), «The Last Battle» (The Last Battle, 1956)
Science fiction
Space Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet (1938), Perelandra (1943), That Hideous Strength (1946)
Religious works
The Screwtape Letters (1942), Great Divorce (1945), Screwtape Proposes a Toast (1961), Mere Christianity (1952, based on radio broadcasts) 1941-1944), «Reflections on the Psalms» (Reflections on the Psalms, 1958), «Four Loves» (The Four Loves, 1960, about the types of love and its Christian understanding)
Works in the field of literary history and philology
A Preface to Paradise Lost (1942), English Literature in the Sixteenth Century (1955), The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition Study in Medieval Tradition, 1936)