A Chronology

1895

Warren Hamilton Lewis, C. S. Lewis's brother, and Arthur Greeves, Lewis's Belfast neighbor and lifelong friend, born.

1898

Clive Staples Lewis born in Belfast, November 29.

1905

Lewis family moves to a new house, Little Lea, in County Down.

1908

Lewis's mother dies, August 23.

1911

At school in England, Lewis becomes an atheist.

1914

Lewis begins private tutoring with W. T. Kirkpatrick, also an atheist, for whom Lewis will develop a great affection.

1917-1919

Though accepted to Oxford, Lewis enlists in the army and spends his nineteenth birthday in the trenches during WWI.  He is later wounded in battle.

1919

Lewis returns to University College, Oxford and establishes a household with the mother and sister of a friend, Paddy Moore, who was killed in action. Publishes Spirits In Bondage, A Cycle of Lyrics.

1925

After earning a Triple First at Oxford and substituting for E. F. Carrit as a philosophy tutor for one year at University College, Lewis is elected to a fellowship in English literature and language at Magdalen College, Oxford.

1926

Publishes Dymer.

1929

Lewis's father dies, September 24. Shortly thereafter Lewis becomes a theist.

1930

The Lewis brothers (Warren now retired from the army) and the Moores purchase and move into the Kilns, a home in Headington Quarry, just outside of Oxford.

1931

C. S. Lewis becomes a Christian and learns that Warren has, quite independently, also converted to the Christian Faith.

1933

Publishes The Pilgrim's Regress.

1936

Publishes The Allegory of Love, also meets Charles Williams this year.

1938

Publishes Out of the Silent Planet, the first in his science fiction trilogy.

1940

Publishes The Problem of Pain.

1941

Lewis does BBC Broadcast talks beginning in this year and continuing through 1944. These talks will later be collected and published as Mere Christianity in 1952. Also begins presidency of the Socratic Club, which position he will hold until 1954.

1942

Publishes The Screwtape Letters.

1943

Publishes Perelandra, the second in his science fiction trilogy. Also publishes The Abolition of Man.

1945

Publishes That Hideous Strength, the third in his science fiction trilogy. Charles Williams dies.

1947

Publishes Miracles. His portrait appears on the cover of Time Magazine, September 8.

1950

Publishes The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. The other six books in the Chronicles of Narnia will be published one per year through 1956.

1951

Mrs. Moore dies, January 12. Lewis declines the honor of being named Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

1952

Lewis and Helen Joy Davidman Gresham meet in September, after having corresponded at length.

1953

Joy returns to the U.S.; then again, in December, she comes to England, this time with her two young sons.

1954

Lewis publishes English Literature in the Sixteenth Century. He is also elected Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English Literature at Magdalene College, Cambridge.

1955

Publishes his autobiography, Surprised by Joy. Assumes chair in Cambridge.

1956

Publishes Till We Have Faces. Lewis and Davidman marry at the Oxford registry office, April 23. By November Joy is near death from a recurrence of cancer.

1957

Lewis marries Joy in a bedside ecclesiastical ceremony, March 21, 1957. The priest prays for Joy's healing at this time. By December Joy is walking again.

1958

Lewis publishes Reflections on the Psalms. In June Joy's cancer is arrested, and in July the couple honeymoon in Ireland.

1960

Publishes The Four Loves. Three months after a physically painful trip to Greece with Lewis, Joy Davidman Lewis dies, July 13.

1961

Publishes A Grief Observed and An Experiment in Criticism.

1963

C. S. Lewis dies on November 22, 1963, the same day as J.F.K. and Aldous Huxley.

1964

Letters To Malcolm: Chiefly On Prayer published posthumously.

1966

Lewis's lifelong friend Arthur Greeves dies, August 29.